NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Re: Comcast increasing compression of some HD sources
On Wed, Apr 2, 2008 at 10:03 AM, Ron Teitelbaum <Ron@usmedrec.com> wrote: > This is very interesting. I couldn't find the direct quote but according to > Mary Lou Jensen, the resolution of HD is mostly hype. The resolution being > developed and delivered is greater then a person eyes are able to see. I'm > sure this needs more research but given the way that technology is out > pacing the ability to deliver those services it might be a worthwhile field > of study. It depends on the encoding and whats being watched. EG, there IS a difference between 480i and 720p in practice. But I'm not sure if most people could tell 720p from 1080p unless they have a monster TV. But you CAN tell the difference between 720p and 1080p if you use it as a computer monitor. Bigtime. > I find this very relevant by the way. I was wondering why P2P was being > singled out. I assumed that P2P was an easier target then VOIP and HD > video. I think that we should be discussing the impact of those > technologies on the internet and P2P technologies. Its a matter of bandwidth and behavior. VOIP is the exact opposite. A user making a VOIP call is using ~10 Kbps or so. So VOIP calls are not a huge load factor unless you network is congested-to-the-point of unusability, and in that case, the VOIP callers will drop off. VOIP is also bursty. People don't tend to talk continuously for 5 hours on their VOIP calls. As for comparing against HD videos: P2P is noncacheable, but HD videos over HTTP are cacheable. You could theoretically use DPI to detect tracker access, then cache it with a modified client (playing games with the local participants to force all traffic local and get copies into the cache). But to do so would invite an instant lawsuit, while HTTP caching is largely considered acceptable, and the infrastructure is already in place in many (most?) ISPs. P2P uses the uplink as well as the downlink, with many of the networks being asymmetrically provisioned. Comcast's RSTs were reportedly targeting the "leeches" and "seeds", where a host was only uploading to others, not receiving data for himself. Finally, P2P is often heavily misused by the users with many simultaneous flows, both from the implementations and from usage (open many torrents). HD video is usually only one at a time, which means TCP fairness produces user fairness. As for Lauren's question, some wide area Wireless ISPs already do image transformations and other transformations to save bandwidth.