Comcast Answers Today's Traffic Question
The difference of opinion that Level 3 and our company have over our "Internet peering" relationship has generally been well understood as simply that -- a peering dispute. But a few in the blogosphere are trying to build other theories. One of those is some recent buzz generated by one blogger in which he makes allegations about "congestion" of certain commercial traffic on our network, and he goes on to speculate from there.
We're not going to respond tit for tat on the validity of the so-called "TATA graphs" because they aren't ours, but the allegation that these graphs demonstrate that Comcast is engaging in what the blogger calls "congestion by choice" are patently false.
Internet traffic shifts and growth happen all the time and many of these are beyond any one network's control, including ours. When they do occur, or when we can reasonably anticipate them, we adjust capacity to optimize the traffic flow between our network and our fellow networks.
Trying to base a theory upon a snapshot of TATA ports in one market during a particular time period (assuming the graph is legitimate) paints a narrow, inaccurate picture. It hardly represents how the Internet functions or the capacity and varied paths between Comcast and many networks on the Internet.
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Comments (3)
@Nathan These peering agreements - not just ours with our partners, but just about all peering agreements we're aware of - are contracts that are subject to non-disclosure provisions. That limits our ability to respond to speculation and misstatements, including those that may violate non-disclosure. So I can't offer more in response.
Hey Joe,
If you're so sure that the traffic patterns will show that you're not doing anything wrong, why not just release them? You obviously know whether they are valid or not. Show us.
Or is this another "Form 477" situation where you can't give any actual data because it's "proprietary"?
I appreciate you pointing us to these discussions about Comcast's TATA transit links. I think there are some valid questions raised about Comcast's traffic management practices. If these links have indeed been congested for months, as several parties claim to have knowledge of, I as a Comcast customer would like to know why Comcast has not bought more capacity from TATA. Leaving your primary transit links congested for such a duration of time shows a clear disregard for the quality of your network. This is completely irrelevant to any peering dispute with L3 or anyone else.
Please, Comcast, provide proof that these allegations are "patently false". All you need to do is provide your own MRTG graphs for your TATA ports showing that the congestion issues (if any) are a recent problem, and explain how you plan to resolve them.
For the record, I was on Comcast's side in the L3 dispute until these new allegations were made. Now I think Comcast has some explaining to do.