do read !!! Comcast confirms 250GB cap effective October 1

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Tony Lauck <tlauck () madriver com>
Date: August 29, 2008 12:55:28 PM EDT
To: Dan Lynch <dan () lynch com>
Cc: "'David Farber'" <dave () farber net>
Subject: Re: [IP] Re:   do read Comcast confirms 250GB cap effective  
October 1

Dan,

Yes, a cap will solve the congestion problem if it is set sufficiently  
low.  In the limit it definitely solves the congestion problem by  
driving away all the customers. (The Prodigy solution.)

The problem is that congestion is caused by instantaneous load  
exceeding capacity, whereas monthly usage measures average load. If  
there are, say, four busy hours per day, an average based cap will  
need to be set (roughly) six times lower than it would otherwise need  
to be. The result will be unhappy customers. In addition, the bean  
counters (who are unlikely to know any queuing theory) may suggest  
that expenses be cut by reducing resources!

I have written many IP posts on this subject and you can find them in  
the archive. Basically, a proper solution is to give higher priority  
to users who create less congestion. Let everybody go as fast as they  
want when there is no congestion. If people need or want more capacity  
than others, let them pay more for more "shares" and adjust the  
weighting accordingly, and use the money to increase capacity. This  
approach is politically neutral, i.e. it will work in a capitalist or  
a socialist society. Unlike the Comcast cap it follows the principle  
of maximum utilization of resources.

Tony Lauck
https://www.aglauck.com



Dan Lynch wrote:
> Tony, can you teach me how a cap does not solve their congestion  
> problem?
> In the limit it sure does...
> Thanks,
> Dan




-------------------------------------------
Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now
RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/
Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com