[nycbug-talk] Traffic shaping a cable internet connection

[Miles Nordin]

>>>>> "js" == Jonathan Stewart <jonathan at kc8onw.net> writes:

    js> if I would be better off setting the limit a little low like
    js> 600 and sacrificing a little bandwidth to hopefully reduce
    js> latency

yeah, ``what Chris said.''  Doing proper QoS on a broadcast network
has to be done inside the cable modem using QoS algorithms built into
the MAC (which, I assume, is exactly what they do for their
telephone-over-cable services).  These algorithms are different from
and more primitive than what's in ALTQ.

If the carrier is selling you say, like Towerstream, ``1.5Mbit/s
guaranteed, burstable to 5Mbit/s'', then the burstable bandwidth is
absolutely worthless to you if you want to do ALTQ-style QoS.  If you
want to use ALTQ, you can only use the 1.5Mbit/s.

Residential cable modems are probably something like ``0Mbit/s
guaranteed, burstable to 1Mbit/s''.

I get so sick of people telling me the great bandwidth deals they get
on their cable OMG I am getting so many megabits of Intarweb and
paying so little.  It's worthless to me because I cannot do bittorrent
and ssh at the same time, while right now, I can.  I can't do
business-quality voip over cable, while right now, I can.  I've no
objection in principle to ``sharing'' with my neighbors, but it's a
fundamentally different kind of service that you get from cable.
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