Cable Forum - View Single Post - What it's really like to Virgin Media XL and STM/capping

The Jackal · 16-04-2008, 13:47

As a test I've been downloading general data from a Tier 2 host over the past 18 hours utilising the Virgin connection as much as possible to highlight periods under STM.

The graphs are as attached. (Unfortunately I had a power outage at 8am such that the second graph is not complete)

Key events.

[1] At just past 6pm yesterday I fell under the STM cap with downloads dropping to 4.5mbps-5mbps. This lasted until just after 11pm (ie 5 hours under STM)

[2] After 11pm the caps were released and my download speed rapidly moved to 16mbps (the maximum due to the limits of my DOCSIS 1 cable modem). Maximum throughput was maintained until just before 11am when I was again thrown back into STM territory.

I suspect that you are under STM for 5 hours after any given bandwidth infrigement during the policing hours 10am to 9pm. So it looks like I'll be stuck on 5mbs for most of day with the occasional spike to full speeds.

On the plus side speed under non STM periods was very favourable fluctauting between 13-16mbps (Ignore the 10mbps plateau as that was downloading from a different host)

16-04-2008, 13:47	#1
The Jackal Inactive Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 1,604	What it's really like to Virgin Media XL and STM/capping As a test I've been downloading general data from a Tier 2 host over the past 18 hours utilising the Virgin connection as much as possible to highlight periods under STM. The graphs are as attached. (Unfortunately I had a power outage at 8am such that the second graph is not complete) Key events. [1] At just past 6pm yesterday I fell under the STM cap with downloads dropping to 4.5mbps-5mbps. This lasted until just after 11pm (ie 5 hours under STM) [2] After 11pm the caps were released and my download speed rapidly moved to 16mbps (the maximum due to the limits of my DOCSIS 1 cable modem). Maximum throughput was maintained until just before 11am when I was again thrown back into STM territory. I suspect that you are under STM for 5 hours after any given bandwidth infrigement during the policing hours 10am to 9pm. So it looks like I'll be stuck on 5mbs for most of day with the occasional spike to full speeds. On the plus side speed under non STM periods was very favourable fluctauting between 13-16mbps (Ignore the 10mbps plateau as that was downloading from a different host)