Traffic Management Profile Change

[richard_f2s]

Introduction

For some time we have had a traffic management profile implemented on the aggregate bandwidth for freedom2surf (by aggregate we mean all of the traffic that is transferring across our network). This profile, despite being adjusted from time to time, has been a static profile. This means that certain types of internet traffic have been allocated a maximum throughput on our networks irrespective of how busy they are.


What does this mean?

At busy times certain applications, for example P2P traffic, have a maximum amount of bandwidth allocated to them. This allocation is shared between the number of people using that particular application at any one point in time irrespective of whether reserved bandwidth for other applications using protocols such as http or SMTP is not being used.


What change is going to be applied?

On Tuesday 6th March we will be implementing a new form of traffic management profile. This will again be applied to the aggregate but will have characteristics that should provide a fairer method of allocating bandwidth to certain applications. This new profile provides a dynamic bandwidth allocation algorithm that will adjust the amount of bandwidth available to certain applications based upon a weighting. This weighting allows us to preference interactive traffic such us http and VoIP over non-interactive protocols such as P2P. However, at less busy times when less customers are using interactive applications the remainder of the allocated bandwidth for interactive traffic can be made available for non-interactive traffic and vice versa. This "bursting" means that we expect that our customers will see better performance from their connections, and for P2Pers this difference will be more marked during off peak periods.


What other effect can we expect to see?

P2Pers have for a time been able to circumvent our traffic management platform by encrypting their P2P sessions. This encryption "masks" the P2P traffic from the current traffic management profiles. We will be applying a change which enables us to classify encrypted P2P traffic as P2P. For those customers who have been circumventing the existing profile this will mean that their P2P session throughput will be subject to traffic weighting. However, these customers should see the benefit of bursting during the off-peak periods.


Why do you traffic manage?

We manage traffic to ensure that the majority of our customers who use interactive applications are not impacted by the minority of customers who choose to use bandwidth intensive non-interactive applications. We have a finite amount of bandwidth and we need to protect this to make sure that our service is good, especially for interactive applications.


Why are you targeting P2P?

We're not targeting P2P specifically. P2P by it's very nature is designed to use the maximum amount of bandwidth available on a network, without traffic management unmanaged P2P traffic would swamp our networks meaning that the majority of our customers would have a bad experience. This change provides a fairer method of managing bandwidth - if bandwidth is not being used for interactive traffic it is automatically made available to non-interactive traffic until demand for interactive traffic bandwidth is restored.


What can I do to get the best performance from P2P?

It's simple. Use P2P during non-busy periods when our network is less busy. This is typically during our off-peak periods.

[kmount]

Why has it taken the best part of 3 weeks to tell us this?

[leyupab]

Good to hear that P2P hasn't been written off completely. I think most people would accept that you have to do something to prevent p2p hogging all the bandwidth but there needs to be better communication and improved speeds during off peak.

[RND]

Thanks for making the changes, I do most of my downloads over night so this will help.

But "We have a finite amount of bandwidth and we need to protect this to make sure that our service is good, especially for interactive applications." What? an ISP with finite bandwidth??

[Andy L]

I noticed that my torrent speeds were much faster this morning - but we should have been told of these changes weeks ago. I thought the 24/7 dial-up speeds were going to be permanent...

[richard_f2s]

Originally Posted by Andy L

but we should have been told of these changes weeks ago.

Weeks ago this solution wasn't on the table - we've moved very fast in the past few days to put this in place with confidence that this will be an improvement!

Nothing really new then?

[kmount]

Originally Posted by richard_f2s

Weeks ago this solution wasn't on the table - we've moved very fast in the past few days to put this in place with confidence that this will be an improvement!

No it wasn't on the table but the problem was there and completely ignored by f2s.

[JimK]

Chaz,

Sorry not happy with that.

We have never ignored the problem, the very fact that the P2P traffic was there at all meant the problem would never have been ignored. We where some what limited in what we could do about it at the time.

The challenge to date has been about creating a facility that allows us to try and keep most of the people happy most of the time. This facility allows us to give people who don’t use P2P during the day a bigger slice of the cake for those applications sensitive to delay. It then gives the P2P guys the ability to fill the network non peak thus getting more out of the network as a whole. I hope it’s a win, win for everyone.

Our engineering teams have a done a great job at giving us a tool that allows us to manage the profile of the network, we have not had that facility until recently.

[kmount]

Jim, look the thread where this 'slowdown' initially occured and where Richard posted the 'profile had been reversed back to normal'. Few days later, the problem resurfaced (~16th Feb), and until last evening, not a single comment from f2s regarding it.

That to me is complete ignorance.

The actual solution yes is a good step forward, but again time after time the communication side is non-existant and I can only imagine the influx of support calls due to users not being kept in the loop so to speak.

Its not a problem for me, I don't use p2p, but I do try and help users here and its very difficult when information is not provided by the isp.

Originally Posted by Chaz

Jim, look the thread where this 'slowdown' initially occured and where Richard posted the 'profile had been reversed back to normal'. Few days later, the problem resurfaced (~16th Feb), and until last evening, not a single comment from f2s regarding it.

That to me is complete ignorance.

The actual solution yes is a good step forward, but again time after time the communication side is non-existant and I can only imagine the influx of support calls due to users not being kept in the loop so to speak.

Its not a problem for me, I don't use p2p, but I do try and help users here and its very difficult when information is not provided by the isp.

Have to agree with you Chaz, the deafening silence from F2s has lost them customers. Look how many from this forum have voted with their feet and moved to Be. I myself applied for a MAC and dithered for almost a week before signing to UKFSN. More communication from F2S might have meant me staying to see how the changes go, but now I'm off on the 23rd for good.

I've been with F2S since I started broadband - over 4-5 years. Since Pipex took charge how many times have we seen problems related to failure to communicate with the customer? Too many. And it keeps happening.

YOU NEED TO KEEP YOUR CUSTOMERS INFORMED!

When problems arise, and there is silence, how are we to know if its a problem or just the way Pipex/F2S want the network to run?

[richard_f2s]

An update on this...

After applying the new profile this morning we've obviously been closely monitoring and our engineers noticed some anomalies in the traffic flows.

As a result we've escalated this issue to our network equipment supplier as it would appear to be a bug affecting one of our core devices.

Therefore, the decision has been taken to roll back the new profile on the device with the issue to the prior profile. Because of the way that our traffic management platform works we have also de-classified encrypted P2P traffic.

Not all customers connections flow through this device so some will see the dynamic profile and some will not.

Obviously, we're working our network equipment supplier hard to resolve the problem and I'll update you in due course when the new profile is reapplied.

[acidtechno]

Who is JimK? does he work for F2S? I don't see f2s in his name, but he appears to talk for the company.

This is good news, and it would be nice to extend the unmetered period by 1 hour, say midnight-6am.

Some people expect too much from P2P, some poor speeds are down to the source speeds and people blame F2S. Just because there's a lot of sources does not mean you will have super fast speeds. Some torrents can take days, traffic shaping does not even apply in those kinds of cases.

People don't have the right to complain if they expect super fast speeds just because it's a popular movie they want to dl.

[kmount]

Yes, JimK does work for Pipex/f2s. - Its not my position to say what his full name is, nor his position within Pipex/f2s.

However, we've spoken on the phone before Christmas and enjoyed a thorough positive discussion.

[acidtechno]

oooh, phone eh

thanks for the confirmation, all I needed to know.

[kmount]

Well, based on the name, I'm making an assumption its the same person.

[JimK]

The assumption was correct.

Only older and with more grey highlights than before xmas.

But still passionate that change is happening and will continue to happen.

JimK

[kmount]

The assumption was correct.

Only older and with more grey highlights than before xmas.

But still passionate that change is happening and will continue to happen.

JimK

I don't dispute that.

I pointed out the communication and backwards approach before Christmas and that change is particularly required on that front.

You did leave me with a sense of reassurance but we're now approaching the end of Q1 2007 with not a great deal of further development from an external point of view.

[pembo]

I've got to agree with Chaz here - there has been a consistent problem with F2S over the past month.

Because of that I along with others have now left F2S and moved to an ISP where there is more communication, and let you know more about what is going on, are more open with their 'traffic management' profiles, etc.

F2S have been silent in the numerous threads on this board about these issues and have been VERY slow to answer support requests regarding these.

It is not without regret that I leave F2S - They WERE very good.
Something has changed for the worse.

I don't want this thread to turn into an F2S Bashing thread - I'm sure things will get better. I just hope they can learn from the mistakes of the past few months.

[Andy85]

what is the "off-peak" period then?

[richard_f2s]

1AM to 6AM

[monkey_boy]

Thanks for this information.
Just out of curiosity, why have I not received a newsletter email update from F2S about this. There must be hundreds of F2S customers who don't know of or look at this forum?!?! Then again I may be wrong.
Also am I correct that F2S does not help fund this forum? If so why is important information to customers such as this not published on www.freedom2surf.net (I've looked but not found it) and only on a 3rd party non affiliated site?!
It seems like a backwards approach to good customer relations.
I appreciate the fact that this site is here and I find it very informative but there must be many F2S users out there who are just cursing that 'the Internet is slow today' etc without knowing what the ISP they pay for is actually doing.

[NewsreadeR]

Well on my F2S connection I use during the day now especially in the afternoon, is very slow, and google even timed out......

Either the DNS is poor or shaping has hit a new extreme. The other explanation is most of the sites I visit are in the states and peering may have gone wonky. Definitley no Spyware / viruses etc etc.....

Either way, the quality of my connection is close to been called PANTS and close to moving to ZEN or someone.

If only Sky did two accounts per household.

[keith_thfc]

Originally Posted by monkey_boy

I appreciate the fact that this site is here and I find it very informative but there must be many F2S users out there who are just cursing that 'the Internet is slow today' etc without knowing what the ISP they pay for is actually doing.

Makes perfect Pipex business sense to keep customers in the dark though because it forces them to phone up support which makes them more £.

Only a small proportion of f2s customers visit this site so there's no great damage when they post bad news on here.

[Nosferatu]

We're not targeting P2P specifically. P2P by it's very nature is designed to use the maximum amount of bandwidth available on a network, without traffic management unmanaged P2P traffic would swamp our networks meaning that the majority of our customers would have a bad experience. This change provides a fairer method of managing bandwidth - if bandwidth is not being used for interactive traffic it is automatically made available to non-interactive traffic until demand for interactive traffic bandwidth is restored.

In other words your over selling bandwidth in the same way webhosts oversell space and bandwidth

There is a simple way to solve the problem.... stop cheating the customer and sell them what you can provide?

*Sigh* guess I'll be leaving f2s after all .... after so many years too