On Thu, 6 Nov 2014, Blake Hudson wrote:
Owen, should providers be able to over subscribe their networks? If so, at what tier level (tier 1, 2, 3, residential ISP)? Is it acceptable for a provider to permit frequent congestion if they choose to? Or should they be forced to take action that may (potentially) lead to increased customer rates or reduced customer bandwidth?
Tier levels are marketing terms - irrelevant to technical/operational discussions. Every provider oversubscribes to some level, whether they're in the last mile serving residential users, or a carrier of carriers. It's just a question of what amount of oversubscription is acceptable, and what the risks are when customers blow that oversubscription model out of the water, either in the short term (streaming major sporting events, etc), or in the longer term (increased prevalence of streaming video, rich content, etc). Congestion due to short-term spikes is often seen as an acceptable risk. Congestion due to long-term shifts in customer network usage habits requires the oversubscription model to be re-worked, or the provider (and by extension... their customers) accepts a reputation of not dealing proactively with congestion. jms