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timmy
join:1999-12-27
Donora, PA

timmy

Member

[Business] Business class vs residential for traffic priority

I'm investigating switching over to the business class internet/phone and leaving my TV with the residential side. I work from home 1 day a week plus any after hours calls so I'm looking to make the connection as good as it can get.

Per the sales guy (Yeah, I know) the business class traffic is on a separate network from residential. He thinks this would improve my experience with sluggish, sometimes stalled internet. I live in an area where the Comcast residential is incredibly dense as you can see about a dozen Comcast wifi networks. For the record the sluggishness can also happen on a wired network.

I'd like to confirm is the traffic is indeed on a separate network or if the other people on residential would still bog down my connection at times?

TIA

EG
The wings of love
Premium Member
join:2006-11-18
Union, NJ

EG

Premium Member

»Re: [Connectivity] Comcast massive connection issues South Florida Broward County

SuperNet
Go Ninja,Go Ninja Go..
Premium Member
join:2002-10-08
Hoffman Estates, IL

SuperNet

Premium Member

+1.. The sales guy does not know what he is talking about or just wants a sale.

SampleSize
@comcast.net

SampleSize to timmy

Anon

to timmy
FWIW, keeping in mind that this is a sample size of one, our business class connection continued operating normally when there was a massive outage for residential Comcast in our area. The last-mile infrastructure is clearly shared so business class won't help if your problems arise from local infrastructure. Beyond the last mile though, the traffic *might* be separate from residential traffic?

EG
The wings of love
Premium Member
join:2006-11-18
Union, NJ

EG

Premium Member

said by SampleSize :

Beyond the last mile though, the traffic *might* be separate from residential traffic?

AFAIK, that is not so. Neither is the traffic marked for any special QOS handling. I am open for correction.

NetFixer
From My Cold Dead Hands
Premium Member
join:2004-06-24
The Boro
Netgear CM500
Pace 5268AC
TRENDnet TEW-829DRU

1 recommendation

NetFixer

Premium Member

said by EG:

said by SampleSize :

Beyond the last mile though, the traffic *might* be separate from residential traffic?

AFAIK, that is not so. Neither is the traffic marked for any special QOS handling. I am open for correction.

There is no Quality of Service difference between BCI and residential connections that I know of. But I have been told by a former Comcast network engineer that BCI connections do implement Class of Service that is used to differentiate BCI from residential accounts for IPv6 PD prefix assignment (it is used to force a /56 PD prefix for BCI connections, rather than negotiate a /60-/64 PD prefix as is done with residential connections).

I don't know if CoS is used by anything other than Comcast's DHCPv6 service, but I suspect that the simple fact that Comcast does differentiate between residential and BCI connections (even if QoS is not involved) may be why some BCI CSRs seem to think that BCI traffic is given special treatment.

EG
The wings of love
Premium Member
join:2006-11-18
Union, NJ

EG

Premium Member

Thank you for your input NetFixer See Profile
cheeseman
join:2014-06-19
Palo Alto, CA

cheeseman to timmy

Member

to timmy
BCI uses the same last mile infrastructure, same CMTS, and same upstream routers as residential service. The COS differentiation is just the speed tier the CMTS assigns to your modem.

NetFixer
From My Cold Dead Hands
Premium Member
join:2004-06-24
The Boro
Netgear CM500
Pace 5268AC
TRENDnet TEW-829DRU

NetFixer

Premium Member

said by cheeseman:

BCI uses the same last mile infrastructure, same CMTS, and same upstream routers as residential service. The COS differentiation is just the speed tier the CMTS assigns to your modem.

The modem config file does indeed use class-of-service profile(s) to determine (among other things) the speed tier: »www.cisco.com/support/to ··· /CoS.htm

However, that is not likely to be the same CoS used by Comcast's DHCP server to determine if a customer is a business class or a residential customer: »Re: [IPv6] Customer Owned Devices with Business Services Why would a Comcast DHCP server care what speed tier is assigned to your account (and how could it see the modem config file)?

beachintech
There's sand in my tool bag
Premium Member
join:2008-01-06

beachintech to timmy

Premium Member

to timmy
The biggest difference between BCI and Residential? Support and response times. That's really it, and you pay for it. You get faster response, in some cases a contractual agreement for MTTR, faster outage response, etc. The HFC network is the same for both, hits the same headend eq, uses the same line gear, etc.
noisefloor
join:2010-05-09

noisefloor to timmy

Member

to timmy
Last mile is all shared HFC network as said before (you share the node with everyone else). However, if you have a static IP that *is* routed completely different in many markets by the CMTS/edge routers. If you have a regular DHCP BCI connection you share the same pool as resi DHCP scope and that traffic is not shaped differently at all.

EG
The wings of love
Premium Member
join:2006-11-18
Union, NJ

EG

Premium Member

said by noisefloor:

However, if you have a static IP that *is* routed completely different in many markets by the CMTS/edge routers.

Got docs ??