Broadband Access S. C. Sahasrabudhe, CERC- Ahmedabad, India

Framework Internet ISP The Client (You & I) QoS

Internet Global Network Loosely Coupled (Little Central Control) Extremely Valuable Billions of Clients (Consumers) Livelihoods, Working lives, communication, Education,…It affects everything. So, Quality of Access to it is no trivial matter.

QoS Very Illusive (Engineering, Subjective, and Random) Engineers have studied it well, but mostly to improve the Quality. The Engineers (may be, rather foolishly) seem to assume that all play fair! Also, they address issues related not only to the ISP but the entire net.

Qu. What Best can you do on behalf of the consumer?

Some Q/A on Access Speed Q. Is the access speed very important? Ans. Yes, it is. Q. Can it be measured? Ans. Yes, it can be. Q. Can a consumer understand the measurement? Ans. It is difficult. It is random and depends on several factors

Factors in QoS QoS depends on Several factors..like: access speed, packet loss rate, different jitters, and also on the Application. We need measurement of not just the access speed but of QoS. QoS Application on the Consumer’s Machine?

Consumer and the SLA Most Consumers do not really Understand the SLA they sign! A Model SLA ( at least a template)? Should be possible. All SLAs in Public Domain? Content Design of the Bill?

Template for Bill Format DateFrom Hrs. To Hrs. Downloa d Volume Upload Volume Access Speed: Max, Min, Avg. Quality Index The Quality Index will take into account: Error rates, Packet Delays, etc

Complaints and Redress To whom? ISP or Regulator, or Both? Access to Information from the Regulator! (Not my Fault!) Powers to the Regulator? Some Good Work! Next Few slides are Meredith Whittaker’s Presentation at Baku

Me Meredith Whittaker Google Research & Measurement Lab Research Consortium Verifiable data for consumer Empowerment

Empowering Consumers with transparency Consumers deserve to know "What is going on with my Internet?"

Accountable measurement: "Facts based on facts" To be accountable, network measurement must be open, and scientifically verifiable. The Measurement Lab Research Consortium (M-Lab) provides an open ecosystem for network measurement measurementlab.net

Open data, open measurement The M-Lab model: ● Globally distributed, consistent testing servers ● 11 Open-source, consumer-facing measurement tools ● All data collected put into the public domain, over 600 terabytes freely available

Privacy matters M-Lab: "active tests" sending synthetic data. No personally identifying information is collected, all data can be shared.

Problem in Waiting Mobile Access on 3G, 4G, and beyond The Dominant Access in 3/5 yrs. Two Major Issues: 1. Spectrum – Very Costly 2. Wireless link –Poor, Unpredictable 3. Capturing Transactions?

References 1.Holding Broadband Providers to Account, A consumer Advocacy Manual, Kualalmpur Enforcement Report, A report on Ofcom’s approach to enforcement and recent activity, May UK fixed broadband speeds, Ofcom Research Report, March 2011

Thank You

Some Additional Slides

ISSUES Q1. What do the Service Providers tell their Clients? Ans. Very Little (if anything). Most do not understand anyway!

Next Question Q2. (More difficult). What is your access speed? It is a random variable- mean and variance? Not fully. Q3. How to correctly describe true (of real value to the consumer) speed? Hard problem. And also, may not be easily or meaningfully measurable, and…

Next Question Q4. Will it pass the Legal Test? The fault was not in the service provider’s domain. The measurements are not in accordance with the service agreement. No proof that the consumer accessed the service correctly- His computer was doing background jobs. ….

A Typical Promise Speeds ‘up to’ XX Mbps Real Promise- It will never exceed XX Mbps- We assure you.

BT‘up to’ 8Mbps4.1 to 4.8MBPS Orange‘up to’ 8Mbps3.3 to 4.3Mbps Virgin Media ‘up to’ 10Mbps9.5 to 9.7Mbps BT‘up to’ 20Mbps6.9 to 8.7Mbps Sky up‘up to’ 20Mbps7.4 to 8.8Mbps (Only a part of the Table)

Another Issue Internet is used also for (other than file download) : Gaming, VoIP (Skype) These experiences are affected by: Delay, Packet Losses, Jitter etc. So, QoS is determined by many other factors

Increase Competition This is so Obvious: But here If online – Fiber or the ‘tp’. Change implies cost, long break in service. Can turn out to be “from frying pan into fire”. In the forthcoming world of “Wireless” it might be easier to provide competition, but will be much harder to prove culpability in lack of service quality There are Engineering problems but that is for the Engineers

Nutrition Label? It should certainly help. A Good First Step Comprehensive QoS measurement Done by an Independent Regulatory Body May be a better a answer Thank You