Traffic Management Update
 

We've got great news for all customers on our broadband tiers of 30Mb and above. After listening to your feedback, we've decided to stop applying our traffic management policy to download speeds. So now you can download as much as you like without worrying about traffic management slowing you down.

Our new policy is simple:

• We only restrict upload speed, not download speed

• Your speed is only reduced while the upload threshold is exceeded. So the speed reduction could only last as little as an hour as long as you reduce your uploads

http://my.virginmedia.com/traffic-ma...or-higher.html

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

Good news. Virgin have had a lot of criticism over their traffic management policy.

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

will this also include torrents and newsgroup traffic??

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

No - P2P and Newsgroup management remains in place across the network. That is separate to the downstream management.

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

They'll still be slowed down during peak times

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

Why is the slower 20Mb XL subject to STM? Not everybody(eg me) with 20Mb XL is using the old DOCSIS(pre version 3) setup.

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

When the newer traffic management system was introduced it was only for 30Mbit and above speeds.

20Mbit and below stayed with the older system. As they are now legacy tiers and everyone on them (barring BB S) will be offered an upgrade to at least 50Mbit, there is no need to change them.

Oh and 20Mbit is still D2. Only 30Mbit and above are on D3.

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

Are you sure that's true, Ben?

My BB M 20Mb service is D3 through my Superhub 2.


General Configuration
Network Access Allowed
Maximum Number of CPEs 1
Baseline Privacy Enabled
DOCSIS Mode EuroDOCSIS 3.0
Config File
Primary Downstream Service Flow
SFID 39699
Max Traffic Rate 21483000 bps
Max Traffic Burst 10000 bytes
Min Traffic Rate 0 bps
Primary Upstream Service Flow
SFID 39698
Max Traffic Rate 1183000 bps
Max Traffic Burst 8160 bytes
Min Traffic Rate 0 bps
Max Concatenated Burst 8160 bytes
Scheduling Type Best Effort

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

D3 includes channel bonding as far as I'm aware. 20Mbit via SuperHub I'm pretty sure is a single down and upstream channel so is therefore D2

Eitherway - it's a legacy product so has the legacy STM

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

Sorry, Ben, our posts overlapped. See my update above. I'm currently running with 8 DS and 2 US channels on my 20Mb service through Superhub 2.

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

Very odd, I didn't think they had done that. Learn something new everyday ;)

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

Agreed. I don't really need 8 channels for my 20Mb or even my coming 50Mb.

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

This is great news, as now I don't need the fastest broadband to avoid getting crappy speeds when managed.

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

Yes it's the best news I ever seen. Virgin did the right things to removed download traffic management. One day in future upload will be next step.

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

I've never been traffic managed up or down, with or without P2P. I guess I must be in a low-contention area.

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

So now you can download without penalty, as long as you don't use either of the two most popular download protocols in the world. Um... lol?

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

I have been downloading on supernews on and off all day at full speed which for me is 120meg, i just make sure i am using port 443 on ssl and then there is no slowdown.

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

I get no reduction in speed on newesgroups and i'm using the Virgin Media provided servers.

CAn't comment on torrents as I don't use them very often.

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

Throttled to 75% of line speed in peak times only.

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

Not an issue if your usenet provider offers SSL :)

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

Indeed :)

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

Of course on BT Infinity option 2 I'm truely unlimited no management or throttling at all. Just like I did have with Sky, welcome to the party VM customers (if a little late).

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

Now the download STM is lifted, will this mean the problem of mega-downloaders affecting their neighbours broadband speeds will be more of an issue?

In the past, I remember a number of people commenting on the physical design of the VM local network being more affected by this than the FTTC/Infinity design.

If VM have lifted this cap, are they just hoping that the previous mega-downloaders that may have been part of the reason they introduced it in the first place have moved off to Sky, etc.

or will the promise of unlimited 152 Mb download speeds 24x7 encourage them to come back?

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

There is so much backwards and forwards with VM's traffic management that i wouldn't be surprised if it's back on the downstream before long. Mind you the one they just removed was so little that the speed was still faster than FTTC even when managed.

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

I think it is great there is no traffic management, so long as the mega downloaders don't come back and kill peak speeds like before. It is always a small minority as usual that ruins it for the masses....

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

They reduced STM to a small amount a few months ago, to the point where most people probably didn't care if they were STM'd or not. Mega downloaders included, especially those on 120meg, as the STM was to 100Meg. This isn't going to make a huge impact, either the network will cope or it won't but you'll always have heavy downloaders no matter what.

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

My m8 who is on infinity was stunned when i told him my download speed was faster when managed than his was unmanaged. :LOL:

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

Now that is interesting because AIUI when explained to me several years ago, it was based on a 25% reserve downstream bandwidth capacity?
The Allot/DART servers were also placed on backbone peering points as at the time this reduced the incoming cost between ISP's.

The above seems more plausible in terms of compromising on net neutrality for incoming bandwidth at network edge?
The main reason facing VM/ISP's is as we all should know that P2P overlay is completely independent of the classical "client-server" paradigm.

Some extracts from a now somewhat old 2010 white paper illustrates this:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7idyne8k4k...2013.43.53.png

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4awqdef6t6...2013.45.22.png

However in recent years VM announced the (Allot)DART servers were being re-dispositioned towards the core. So what has changed? Well the explosion of upstream demand perhaps is one thing which also begs the question of two opposing philosophies:
1. Net neutrality and protocol agnostic
2. Fair distribution of capacity between users

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8u5q1ktlf0...2013.45.45.png

One wonders whether the P2P traffic limited/contained within ISP internal network has now become more of a significant cost than inter-ISP peering costs?
Perversely containing more of P2P traffic internally would therefore be more cost effective for ISP anyway?
However despite the P2P methodology apportioning upstream bandwidth between peers, as we measure this more granularly then even the limited upstream capacity must therefore come under pressure?

So is VM moving DART towards the end user in order to now regulate the upstream more than just downstream previously? After all regulating seeders upstream on internal P2P would both regulate internal leechers down stream but also the external transit costs to other ISP's?

Or far more likely have I missed something obvious? Forthcoming P4P perhaps? ;)

Ref:The Network Operator's Perspective on Peer-to-Peer: Business Threats or Opportunities?

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

I would love to see the figures on how many customers have been leaving VM. It must be bad for VM to get rid of traffic management altogether. As they have been doing it in bits over the last year I am hoping they are going to start easing the upstream resitrictions as well and see how that goes.

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

Removal of the downstream management hasn't got anything to do with how many people are leaving or not

Anyway, VM had a net increase of customers last year, not a decrease

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

of course it has, VM have been screwing customers with stm for years despite how vocal people have been about it. The whole press release crap about "we have listened to our customers bla bla bla" is rubbish. VM will only do something if it is in their interests to do it. If they can afford to erradicate downstream stm altogether then surely they can afford to chop upstream in half if they are determined to leave p2p shaping in effect.

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

For most people the traffic management was almost transparent. Only the 5% heavy users would be the ones leaving because of this and I say good riddance to them.

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

The upstream traffic management affects pretty much anyone who uploads anything. The caps are tiny for this day and age and the speeds it makes you crawl at are simply so low that it makes it impossible for anyone to be a 'heavy user'. 500KB/s on their top end packages practically during all waking hours at the weekends? Don't make me laugh... heavy users... no one can be a heavy user at those speeds.

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

You tell me how ANY company doesn't try and screw its customers.

---------- Post added at 20:40 ---------- Previous post was at 20:39 ----------

I think the move is great as I mainly download so no STM limits for me :)

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

How much do people upload really? The only time upload is heavily used for extended periods is P2P....

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

I just had some work done on my car, work was done to a high standard, in a reasonable time and for a good price. The garage made their profit but I dont feel screwed in any way

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

What about the new Craze that is people streaming in HD?

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

With PS4 allowing users to broadcast their stream via twitch and Ustream and Xbox allowing it from next week I can those who choose to do this being affected by VM traffic management.

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

Does this mean that speed throttling applies to P2P traffic but there is no longer a limit on how much data is downloaded? Trust VM to confuse customers. They should just do away with throttling/us management and upgrade their infrastructure!

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

yup, there are no download thresholds anymore so regardless of whether you are downloading stuff on Steam or torrents, it isnt a case of "you have downloaded 5gb so we are going to cap you to 50%. Obviously on normal stuff you will get whatever speed is available which you would expect to be close to max. P2P traffic is till shaped which means that during stm/peak hours p2p traffic will be flagged as low priority which may result in abnormally low speeds. Personally I have never noticed it affect torrents but newsgroups can crawl to a halt (literally) unless you use SSL. Soooo, like I said with torrents, I have always been able to get full speed and now that stm has been removed I can continue to download as much as I want (in theory) and not have to worry about any speed reduction.

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

I agree with the general sentiment of what you're saying, but I disagree with this particular bit. Virgin have obviously been upgrading the network lately, ever since the speed doubling first started. We've still got congestion but it's definitely better than it was. However, I do believe that the upstream side of things are a different bag, if it really wasn't as bad as you're suggesting, you'd think they'd up speeds to 10:1 again, which they seem reluctant to do. However, there's lots of evidence to show that the upstream side is being upgraded as well so I think it really is only a matter of time. I wouldn't be surprised if they first brought back 10:1, then reduced STM marginally, then dropped it completely - just like they did with downstream.

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

Its not just that easy to upgrade their network, it not like can just plug in a new UBR its so much more.

Re: Traffic Management Update
 

The amount of work that goes into the upgrading the network is huge and on many levels :)