[e2e] Skype and congestion collapse.

[Cannara]

Having consulted with folks doing products for tracking/controlling these
kinds of traffic, any P2P system that takes whatever it can isn't really to
blame.  Even VoIP is being used to transfer data (not just voice) now.  Any
'internet' that can't manage its congestion at the network layer isn't an
internetwork.  So, apart from all the other Internet mistakes, like
insecurity, which many of us earn $ from, we've also earned from misdesigned
congestion control.  The difference between old-fashioned PSTNs and the
Internet are making the latter look more silly and wasteful day by day. 
Despite the $, I hope some awakening occurs, but we, the taxpayers, will again
have to pay for any eventual, engineered and real internetwork.

Alex

"Alexandre L. Grojsgold" wrote:
> 
> > IMHO, I think that applications like Skype should be responsible for
> > managing the congestion they could potentially cause. This brings me
> > to my question. If more and more applications start to behave like
> > Skype and selfishly worry more about their business model than about
> > the health of the global Internet,
> 
> I guess that what you mean is that Skipe does not use TCP-like bandwidth
> reduction, so it selfishly does not give up sending 10Kbps even in case of
> congestion.
> 
> Well, one must have in mind that at the end of a skype voice connection
> ther is as human being that, in case of congestion and excessive packet
> loss will simply hang up the call - or even be so unhappy that he will
> never try calling thru Skype again.
> 
> Probably the "selfish" behavior if skipe is due to the fact that it is
> unable to make voice go thru using less than 10k - lessening the bandwidth
> would be useless, so in case of congestion, it will simply hang up - or
> wait till the user gives up.
> 
> -- Alexandre.