dslreports logo
 
    All Forums Hot Topics Gallery
spc
uniqs
36
Drizew
join:2004-09-17
Los Lunas, NM

1 edit

Drizew to Daveid

Member

to Daveid

Re: Comcast announces new bandwidth throttling scheme

How can you say that 22/5 is the advertised "powerboost" speed? Especially when you are provisioned @ 24.2/5.5. There have been people reporting speeds of up to 90Mb/s when "powerboost" is activated.

By the way, there is absolutely no relation between throttling and powerboost.

Edit: Mistakes.
Daveid
join:2007-06-12
Milpitas, CA

Daveid

Member

I could understand "little" relation between throttling and powerboost.. but "absolutely no"?

Let me break it down nice and easy for ya

Why do you think powerboost even exists? A friendly "thank you" to customers? That's not how businesses work bud.

It's all apart of the huge marketing gimmick. It's so they can advertise 30/4 to customers and make it seem like Comcast is so "fast".

When in reality, You only get that 30/4 for a few moments.. until your speeds get "throttled" (See?) down to 22/5.

So, don't say there's "absolutely no" relation between Power boost and throttling.
Drizew
join:2004-09-17
Los Lunas, NM

2 edits

Drizew

Member

I never said Powerboost was a "thank you" to customers. They just want you to download faster so you can clear space for others on the network to have faster speeds. It's a clever way for them to squeeze a little more out of their network, so they can increase the subscriber base with minimal cost/effort.

Edit: I guess I had a little more to add... Quick question first... What happens if you use 140% of your rated speeds? throttled in 7 minutes.. lol

"When in reality, You only get that 30/4 for a few moments.. until your speeds get "throttled" (See?) down to 22/5."

How can you say you are being throttled when you are getting 100% of what you are paying for? You subscribe to Ultra, which is 22/5. I see Powerboost as a bonus for both parties.
Daveid
join:2007-06-12
Milpitas, CA

1 edit

Daveid

Member

Dictionary: throt·tle
tr.v., -tled, -tling, -tles.
1. a. To regulate the flow of
b. To regulate the speed of

Dictionary: reg·u·late
tr.v., -lat·ed, -lat·ing, -lates.
1. To control or direct
Drizew
join:2004-09-17
Los Lunas, NM

Drizew

Member

Well at least we both agree that Comcast throttles the speed for Powerboost. They increase the flow of.....
Daveid
join:2007-06-12
Milpitas, CA

Daveid

Member

said by Drizew:

Well at least we both agree that Comcast throttles the speed for Powerboost. They increase the flow of.....
I'm guessing you're taking back your previous statement of "By the way, there is absolutely no relation between throttling and powerboost." then?
Drizew
join:2004-09-17
Los Lunas, NM

2 edits

Drizew

Member

I guess I just didn't construct that sentence as well as I should have. It should have read something like this. "By the way, there is absolutely no relation between Comcast lowering your speeds by throttling and powerboost."

Excuse me, I am trying to multi task. Things slip by me from time to time.

Edit: I would like somebody from Comcast to chime in and maybe give us a better idea of how this all works. The analogy in the pdf was decent, but I would prefer to see some raw data. One tenth of a second is hardly a delay in delivery, but I doubt the system works as intended 100% of the time.

JohnInSJ
Premium Member
join:2003-09-22
Aptos, CA

1 edit

1 recommendation

JohnInSJ

Premium Member

This is how Comcast's congestion management works

said by Drizew:

Edit: I would like somebody from Comcast to chime in and maybe give us a better idea of how this all works. The analogy in the pdf was decent, but I would prefer to see some raw data. One tenth of a second is hardly a delay in delivery, but I doubt the system works as intended 100% of the time.
The pdf explains the system just fine.
When you are identified as a user that is contributing to congestion on a node (and only if you fall into the "if more than 70 percent of your max bandwidth (downstream or upstream) is used for more than 15 minutes" then your packets will be marked as lower priority for the next 15 minutes. There is no throttling.

Here is a simple metaphor:

You and 10 other people have drain pipes. All 10 drain pipes feed into a single sewer line.

Everyone's pipe can drain 10 gallons per second
The sewer can drain 70 gallons per second.

If all 10 users are draining at 7 gps or less, no problems.

If all 10 users are draining at 7gps, and then you start draining at 8pgs, there is now an extra gallon per second that cannot be drained. water backs up. At first, it backs up equally across all 10 of you, so you get 7.9gps, and everyone else gets 6.9gps. After 15 minutes, your water is made to wait so everyone else's water goes first. You get 7gps, and everyone else does too. If another user drops down to 6gps, you'll get 8gps - your water soaks up EXCESS capacity, but no longer GRABS capacity from other users.

It's not a perfect analogy, but hopefully it helps clarify things.

To recap, you can use 100% of your pipe all day and night (for a few days, anyway, then you'll hit the cap - a whole different ball of wax) as long as the nodes you pass through are not saturated. If they become saturated your packets go to the 'bulk' category - you soak up all the excess capacity of the node, but if someone else needs it, your packets wait.
Drizew
join:2004-09-17
Los Lunas, NM

Drizew

Member

Re: Comcast announces new bandwidth throttling scheme

I understand everything they said in the pdf. I was looking for MORE information. I wanted information/data they have collected since this system has been implemented, not theory or estimates. It would be nice to know how long the systems stay overcrowded once the throttling system is activated. How well has it addressed the problem in the top 5 (bottom 5 technically) overcrowded markets? That is the kind of information I was looking to hear from Comcast. I understand the chances of them releasing any real information is small, but it is worth the effort to ask.

funchords
Hello
MVM
join:2001-03-11
Yarmouth Port, MA

1 edit

funchords

MVM

said by Drizew:It would be nice to know how long the systems stay overcrowded once the throttling system is activated. How well has it addressed the problem in the top 5 (bottom 5 technically) overcrowded markets? That is the kind of information I was looking to hear from Comcast. I understand the chances of them releasing any real information is small, but it is worth the effort to ask.
Comcast is currently in a period of technical Glasnost (which we love), and they really do like their latest solution for network management. Ask and they very well may provide some kind of answer.

Fixed uneven quote tags. ~sorto'

JohnInSJ
Premium Member
join:2003-09-22
Aptos, CA

1 recommendation

JohnInSJ to Drizew

Premium Member

to Drizew
said by Drizew:

It would be nice to know how long the systems stay overcrowded once the throttling system is activated. How well has it addressed the problem in the top 5 (bottom 5 technically) overcrowded markets?
The whole point of the method they implemented was that the system now behaves rationally and fairly, so the only people who would notice it at all would be those who were running full out, for long periods of time, and who happen to be on nodes where there were periods of congestion when they were running full out.

In the time I've been monitoring this forum I have seen may people posting complaining about throttling who were in fact experiencing connection issues, or problems upstream. I've yet to see one instance where anyone actually saw deprioritisation of their packets (which is the only "throttling" you'll ever see.)

Based on the algorithm and the general overcapacity of the comcast infrastructure, I'd bet that fewer then 1 in 100 would ever see it.