The NetEqualizer methodology for application shaping has been agnostic with respect to type of data for quite some time. We have shown through our thousands of customers that you can effectively control and give priority to Internet traffic based on behavior. We did not feel comfortable with our Layer 7 application shaping techniques and hence we ceased to support that methodology almost two years ago. We now manage traffic as a resource much the same way a municipality would/should ration water if there was a shortage.

Customers understand this, for example if you simply tell somebody they must share a resource such as: water, the internet , or butter (as in WWII), and that they may periodically get a reduced amount, they will likely agree that sharing the resource is better than one person getting all of the resource while others suffer.

Well that is exactly what a NetEqualizer does with Internet resources albeit in real time. Internet bandwidth is very spiky, it comes and goes in milliseconds and there is no time for a quorum.

taken from

http://netequalizer.wordpress.com/2008/03/28/comcast-should-adopt-behavior-based-shaping-to-stay-out-of-trouble-opinion/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P2P_caching

My further thoughts with links to additional info on fair queuing and max/min - http://rfreeborn.blogspot.com/2008/03/traffic-shaping-network-management-and.html

r.

Intelligent network management is reactive, not preemptive. it should occur only when congestion actually begins to occur. This is congestion management. On those RARE OCCASIONS when congestion management is required, the managers should do several things:

First of all, the network’s managers should, as you suggest, look at increasing available bandwidth if congestion is occurring regularly or for extended periods of time. There is no shortage of fiber available to Comcast.

Secondly, the managers should look at what protocols can stand delay during congestion with little impact on the users. First target should be e-mail. Users will likely not even notice delays in this traffic. There are other protocols, including Comcast’s own network management traffic, that can be delayed with little impact on users.

But in a correctly managed network, congestion should occur RARELY. If it occurs more frequently, the managers are simply not doing their job. And Comcast’s preemptive management philosophy is simply BAD network management. No professional I know would approve of this approach.

One important thing to note. Tony Werner talks as though Comcast has ceased its resetting of BitTorrent traffic immediately, but that is not the case. I asked a Comcast rep about this, and he said the practice will continue until the new method is in place. So don’t celebrate quite yet.

See the updates at the end of this post: http://blogs.chron.com/techblog/archives/2008/03/comcast_and_bittorrent_actually_working_toget_1.html

@JL Plenty of smart people own and operate my chosen provider of electricity ( TXU here in Texas ) but they have no desire to “control” or “dictate” what I do with the juice - Can you imagine?!?!?! The more electricity I use, the bigger the monthly bill, that’s it. There is no mention of who can ( or cannot )use the electricity for Power company “approved” uses.

Oh — and one other IMPORTANT difference. Your electricity is METERED, no flat rate. So are you suggesting that ISPs should move (back) to metered rates?

@JL Plenty of smart people own and operate my chosen provider of electricity ( TXU here in Texas ) but they have no desire to “control” or “dictate” what I do with the juice - Can you imagine?!?!?! The more electricity I use, the bigger the monthly bill, that’s it. There is no mention of who can ( or cannot )use the electricity for Power company “approved” uses.

So your power provider has never had brownouts, when demand outstrips capacity? Isn’t that similar to network congestion at peak times?

Tony is wrong about congestion on the 100 megabit pipes in Japan. Ain’t so, a lie repeated by many. I was on the original D.C. panel where a reporter misunderstood a chart.

Dave Burstein