[IP] Re: Query The FCC has released their High-Speed Internet Status report

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

________________________________________
From: Steven M. Bellovin [smb@cs.columbia.edu]
Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2008 8:00 PM
To: David Farber
Cc: tlauck@madriver.com
Subject: Re: [IP] Re:  Query  The FCC has released their High-Speed Internet Status report

On Thu, 20 Mar 2008 07:54:26 -0700
David Farber <dave@farber.net> wrote:

> Does anyone have statistics for the actual performance of broadband
> service in Japan or other Asian countries?  I don't mean marketing
> numbers or theoretical peak access link speed, I mean sustained
> throughput, e.g. when moving a 300 megabyte file.
>
> I mention this, because I happen to manage a site that sells downloads
> of CD quality audio that keeps records of the file transfer
> performance experienced by the customers. (The server is located in
> downtown Chicago.) I have never seen high download rates from Asia.
> The highest rates come from the U.S. and from Europe. (I presume that
> most of the customers are using a residential broadband service.)
>
> My data is purely anecdotal, but if Asian broadband service is really
> as good and ubiquitous as some claim I would expect to have seen
> higher performance by now.  Or is the problem with submarine cable
> bandwidth?
>
Latency matters a lot, as does proper tuning of the send buffer and
receive window in TCP.  That said, I'll match your anecdote with one of
my own.  A friend of mine who lives in Tokyo says that he can get 80M
bps data transfer between his apartment and a colo facility in Seattle.



                --Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb

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