You may have seen some of the scare stories recently about the internet grinding to a halt in a few years thanks to our love of HD downloads and P2P copyright violation. Is this actually going to happen? How can it be stopped? And what does it all mean to us gamers?
I sent some questions to Andrew Ferguson, editor of ThinkBroadband who deciphered the bewildering telecoms mess for me. He's also provided some tips for online gamers looking for the best broadband performance...
What do you think about recent alarm regarding the internet's capacity to cope with increased demand? For example, the Nemertes report which suggests meltdown could happen in a couple of years... The debate needs to happen, though at its simplest level, as consumers use their connections more, we should expect to pay more. In the case of those on metered services - i.e. have a GB usage limit - this equation is obvious.
The internet will cope so long as money is coming from somewhere to buy more capacity. Fibre backbones are in place around the UK that can have their speeds turned up easily, though hardware at each end may need upgrading as speeds step up.
What currently, are the 'weak areas' in the telecomms pipeline from user to internet. I've heard about copper wire causing problems in the UK, are there other archaic elements of our infrastructure that are clogging things up? In terms of the current debate, defining the weak areas is difficult. A copper local loop doesn't care if you transfer 2GB per month or 2000GB, there is no pricing per GB over the actual copper segment and there is no contention at this level. The problems with the copper local loop arise with the time it takes to transfer the data, e.g. a PS3 game demo from Playstation Network that is 600MB in size will vary in download speed largely based on the speed of your ADSL or ADSL2+ connection.
The cable networks (a la Virgin Media) will assert they are in a much better position, and as they roll out Docsis 3.0 which will support 50Mbps connections they may well be. With the Virgin Media network it is a case of how much are they willing to spend on core network upgrades - obviously it is close to its limits otherwise why would it have its fair use policy in place on its products.
A BIG NOTE: The Virgin Media network is only fibre based to within around 1000 feet of the home. The architecture is such that where the fibre ends they have kit to convert the signal to go over a metallic cable, and possibly a secondary street cabinet if the signal needs amplifying.
The copper telephone network is capable of things like fibre closer to the home than it manages now, and some providers are in preliminary planning stages over this, which may see ADSL2+ speeds improving for people as the phone line becomes shorter.
Will ADSL 2+ suppliers be as disadvantaged by ever increasing demand as ADSL? The backhaul issues and costs affect them both. One major difference is that ADSL2+ has so far been deployed via unbundling where the costs are lower and providers can utilise backhaul networks that are cheaper than BT. As demand increases, we may see these fill up, but for the same monthly fee an unbundled provider's connection should provide more usage than one via a BT Wholesale connection.
We've heard that it'll cost billions to kit the UK out with fibre optic cabling - what can ISPs do in the meantime to ensure demand doesn't outstrip capacity? Is it all going to be about traffic throttling or are there more constructive solutions? Figures of £10 to £15 billion are mentioned, but the fibre here is about local loop - i.e. removing the speed limits we get from living too far from an exchange. The backhaul networks in the UK are already fibre based, and millions have been spent getting these in place. It is said that everyone is within one mile of a fibre link.
Traffic shaping can be both good and bad. Some providers use it blindly and it is implemented poorly, others seem to do it better and are more open about its existence. For example, with BT Total they use traffic management on all customers to avoid major peak time issues - i.e. by splitting the traffic between application types. Some other providers use it to punish people who have used an above average amount of data in a time frame. Some like Virgin Media publish the limits, others like Tiscali do not.
In terms of constructive things, providers need to be more open on the state of their network. A traffic light system to show that the network is congested (red), getting close to congestion (amber), or has plenty of spare capacity (green) should be easy for people to follow and could be used for different traffic types, e.g. gaming/streaming.
It's often unclear to those on metered broadband access, how much gaming contributes to their monthly data usage. Are there any accurate figures around? Game playing varies but around 64Kbps to 128Kbps will cover most games including those with voice capability. Double this is your provider measures upstream bandwidth.
I've become a PS3 and PSP user in the last few months, and the PS3 in particular with game demos from PlayStation Network has pushed up my usage: some demos are 2GB in size. This has cost me more now, as I've increased my package from a 20GB a month to 50GB. I expect to be averaging around 22-25GB a month now rather than 10-15GB, which sounds a lot but I work from home almost every day, listen to radio, play PS3 games online, download HD Video trailers and game demos and an almost constant usage of email/web shows.
Are there any current Fibre-To-The-Home tests taking place in the UK at the moment? 10,000 new homes in Ebbsfleet are due to get FTTH this summer, for delivering internet, TV and telephone services. No copper local loop at all. Initially they are looking at a 10Mbps connections but with options of up to 100Mbps. How long the bursts will last is unknown.
Hard to say what will happen in reality as contention is impossible to predict. Apparently, 100Mbps and 1Gbps connections in Japan are now running like a traffic jam [due to the massive use of P2P applications - see here].
I'd probably expect contention to get worse as speeds get ever faster - i.e. we may see small files burst to 100Mbps, but once a few MB are downloaded things will slow down. It's probably fair to expect a 10Mbps connection to sustain around 2Mbps for several hours, a 50Mbps somewhere around 8Mbps, and a 100Mbps connection maybe 20Mbps. Of course, a lot depends on what we are all doing with our connections and the price we will pay.
The Virgin Media 50Mbps should be with us this summer also, but it looks like the traffic management will remain, and I commented on this here.
And what about 21CN? The big difference in the UK that 21CN will bring about is the network protocol for the backhaul from exchanges will change from ATM to IP - IP networks are generally considered cheaper to install and run. This does not mean people local to you will see you locally, your own internet traffic is tunneled through to your broadband provider.
Do you have any tips for gamers looking for the best broadband connection? Wireless can be a problem for gaming as you can have a connection sometimes but it may be intermittent. Therefore, when locating your console and wireless router check the signal quality to avoid your own network introducing lag and jitter.
An Ethernet connection is preferable as this will be faster, but can be difficult to install depending on layout of property. To avoid running cables you can use a dLan 200 Aveasy Starter Kit [uses your household power grid to create a network] - I use these myself so know they work for linking your console from the games room to where the router is. Cheaper/slower homeplugs are available but I recommend these because they are fast enough to carry HD content from a media server across the network to the console. Also, people buying ADSL2+ and 20Mbps or faster cable products could benefit when downloading as it avoids the wireless slowing things down.
In terms of an ISP to go for, Plusnet is the only major one that does a specific priority product for gaming, but usage levels are low - a couple of PS3 demos in the month and usage is gone.
Five things to look out for in an ISP:
1. Go for an upstream connection speed of 448Kbps or faster (the VM cable products are OK, but if you trigger their management your upstream speed is a bit cramped for gaming). Some providers do a premium upstream at 832Kbps for £5 or £10 a month more, this means you can host games better, or if using in game speech or camera snapshots (Burnout Paradise) these are sent much faster.
2. Consider the LLU providers, mainly Sky, UK Online, Be and O2 who offer a range of higher upstream speed services based around ADSL2+, which will provide those close enough to the exchange with higher speed downloads too.
3. Research behind the adverts, see what other gamers are saying as this is the best way to judge an ISP. Surveys can become very out of date very quickly.
4. Avoid the cheap unlimited deals as these often make heavy use of traffic shaping and it's generally done in a way that does not help gamers.
5. Before blaming your provider for jitter and drop-outs in games do make sure that it is not the ADSL picking up interference and reconnecting while playing. Removing the ring wire is a free and easy way of generally improving ADSL and ADSL2+ lines. More info here.
.png?w=600)
