[e2e] TCP, retransmissions, and ISPs with byte caps

[Philippe Strauss]

On Tue, Jun 18, 2002 at 12:10:41AM +1000, grenville armitage wrote:
> 
> On a different tangent, has anyone got pointers to
> studies of TCP retransmission rates in the context of
> 'typical' consumer broadband access? (And, e.g.,
> the (dis?)incentive for a dodgy ISP to reduce packet loss
> rates if they're also counting retransmitted packets against
> a customer's weekly/monthly usage cap.)

At TCP level, I dont'know.
But i have a "smokeping" running on my home PC connected to
the net thru CATV (terayon teracomm, not DOCSIS), you can take
a look:

http://philou.ch/cgi-bin/smokeping.cgi

It show packet loss rate on long term average (several hours).

But, as an ex-CATV-based-ISP network admin, I can say that
there is no incentive to let packet loss rate grow, except
if your are struggled by the internet bandwidth fee toward your
upstream, which used to be the case in '96 - '98 for the emerging
broadband business but not anymore.

If you want to maximize customer traffic, reduce packet drop.
Retransmit are nothing compared to a connection that works well.

-- 
Philippe Strauss
http://philou.ch/

L'indifférence est le plus grand risque de notre temps,
la forme civilisée de la cruauté.  -- Zenta Maurina
--