Speedtest.net came out with a test that simulates video streaming and gives a bit more information than a feeling, but it can only go so far, given that it isn't on the actual networks people are concerned with.
Also, this doesn't just apply to residential accounts, but really anyone without a strong enough IT department to have their own test points to test to.
From: "Tom Beecher" <beecher@beecher.cc>
To: "Mike Hammett" <nanog@ics-il.net>
Cc: "Jared Mauch" <jared@puck.nether.net>, "NANOG" <nanog@nanog.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 3, 2023 10:17:24 AM
Subject: Re: Google Speed Test
To: "Mike Hammett" <nanog@ics-il.net>
Cc: "Jared Mauch" <jared@puck.nether.net>, "NANOG" <nanog@nanog.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 3, 2023 10:17:24 AM
Subject: Re: Google Speed Test
Totally see your perspective. I'd say that's pretty unique to your space though, given the majority of (domestic) fixed broadband customers don't have that choice.
But completely understand what you are saying.
On Tue, Jan 3, 2023 at 11:05 AM Mike Hammett <nanog@ics-il.net> wrote:
SLAs are irrelevant to customer perception, only to bean counters.
Few to no residential-class services have an SLA whatsoever, yet they'll be the most demanding at any perceived slight.Stand by your SLA all you want, but if a customer's expectations (realistic or not) aren't met, they'll not only leave, but they'll tell everyone else how terrible you are.From a sales perspective, if you can demonstrate that a competitor network cannot do something and that you can with tooling a layperson understands and trusts, you've made big progress.I've visited friends and employees homes and found that while plugged in, a streaming service could not send a single stream at full resolution without buffering. It would be nice to show numbers (not just a feeling) that the other service could only deliver X megabit, while your service could deliver Y megabit.From: "Jared Mauch" <jared@puck.nether.net>
To: "Mike Hammett" <nanog@ics-il.net>
Cc: "Tom Beecher" <beecher@beecher.cc>, "NANOG" <nanog@nanog.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 3, 2023 9:46:16 AM
Subject: Re: Google Speed Test
On Tue, Jan 03, 2023 at 09:31:27AM -0600, Mike Hammett wrote:
> Is there enough available capacity for {insert whatever the customer is trying to do here}.
>
> Can they run 4 YouTubeTV streams or can they run 20?
> Can they download a file at 5 megabits/s or 15 gigabits/s?
>
>
> There's not a problem to be solved, but information of a variety of types to be gleaned for a variety of purposes.
Most SLAs only cover on-net services, I recommend having a good
on-net server for testing purposes and knowing your immediate upstream
and peer upstreams test points. I do recommend that most carriers have
an iperf3/iperf2 test point. You may find your carriers have one as
well, even if it's not listed in their support pages.
I've found this useful when you suspect some problem, including
a link hashing problem that only impacts a few flows.
- jared
--
Jared Mauch | pgp key available via finger from jared@puck.nether.net
clue++; | http://puck.nether.net/~jared/ My statements are only mine.