'Traffic-shaping' likely to slow Internet users

[Praxius]

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNe.../Telecom_companies_080407/20080407?hub=Canada

TORONTO -- Whether motivated by pragmatism or profit, Internet service providers and experts agree that consumers are likely to suffer most from "traffic-shaping'' policies implemented by some of Canada's telecom giants.

Bell Canada's recent decision to quietly restrict the amount of file-sharing traffic flowing through its network during peak times has ignited a fierce debate over the level of competition permitted in the industry and the number of options available to Internet users seeking speedy service.

The Canadian Association of Internet Providers alleges that Bell has effectively curtailed competition in the industry by applying its traffic-restriction policies to any providers who deliver Internet service using Bell's telephone lines in Quebec and Ontario.

The traffic-shaping initiative was launched without prior notice to customers in mid-March, and the association said the full extent of the measures should be in place Monday, resulting in significantly slower Internet service across the board between 4:30 p.m. ET to 2:00 a.m. ET.

Bell maintains the new policies are intended to level the playing field by preventing a small group of Internet users from hogging coveted bandwidth, although officials did not say why the policies are not being implemented in other parts of the country.

Bell is not the only major Internet provider to engage in traffic shaping. Rogers Communications has had similar policies for some time.

But one industry observer says average users have little say in the level of Internet service they receive.

"It really comes down to consumers and a lack of real choice of broadband Internet service,'' said Richard Morochove, a Toronto-based IT consultant.

"We're having . . . a near monopoly situation in Canada with respect to high-speed broadband access.''

Morochove supports Bell's assertion that the move was made to ensure equal service levels across its network.

But he sees the decision as motivated by a desire to limit competition from independent providers by placing them under the same traffic restrictions that Sympatico users have experienced since 2007.

Similar concerns prompted the Internet providers' group to file an official complaint with the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission, alleging that the traffic-shaping measures violate several sections of the country's telecommunications act.

The application, filed last week, alleges Bell is using a technique called Deep Packet Inspection, or DPI, to look at the types of data moving across the Internet and restrict the movements of certain kinds, namely transfers of large files such as movies or music over peer-to-peer networks.

The association says the new measures violate CRTC's terms under which Bell can restrict its traffic, namely if congestion was caused by equipment failure or malicious hacking.

"There is no evidence whatsoever that Bell's network is suffering from congestion, that this is the reason behind the implementation of DPI,'' the application reads.

Association chairman Tom Copeland said DPI is having an adverse effect not only on peer-to-peer download speeds but also on general Internet activity.

He said many independent service providers received complaints since Bell's new policy went into effect and believes the association's application makes a good case.

"I think we have a lot of strong arguments, because this is just wrong on so many levels,'' Copeland said.

The application asks the CRTC to order Bell to suspend its traffic-shaping practices. A CRTC spokesman said he could not comment on the status of the complaint.

But Mirko Bibic, Bell's chief of regulatory affairs, contested the claims outlined in the 56-page document.

He said Bell has the right to maintain the integrity of the network, adding that DPI technology is an objective way of monitoring online traffic.

"Bandwidth doesn't just fall from the sky,'' Bibic said, adding that demands for more bandwidth would not resolve traffic congestion issues and that traffic shaping is part of a ''multi-pronged'' strategy used to limit congestion issues.

He dismissed requests that Bell invest in more bandwidth, describing the "irony'' of receiving such requests from providers who have no infrastructure of their own and who don't directly deal with the complications of network management.

Yeah yeah, blah blah blah.... GET ER DONE!

But within Bell itself, there are diverging views on what constitutes an optimal network management strategy.

Bell Aliant, the primary telephone carrier in the Maritimes, has not implemented traffic shaping policies for either its own customers or third-party providers.

"There are many different ways to manage and monitor a network,'' said Alyson Queen, public affairs manager for Bell Aliant. "We work with our customers very closely, monitor industry trends, and provide them with as much help as we can.''

In central Canada, Bell customers facing the prospect of reduced Internet speeds will also have to contend with changes to the way they pay for online access.

According to the association's application to the CRTC, Bell has eliminated its unlimited Internet plan and as of June 30 will bill based on how much bandwidth a customer has used, mimicking the billing format used by cellphone service providers.

Cacksackers! There's no need for it... it's a friggin money grab. Good thing I live in the maritimes at the moment. They did the same damn thing when dialup came around.... it's pathetic and there's no need for it.

Rogers recently announced similar billing changes to take effect in June, charging between $1.25 and $5 for every extra gigabyte a customer uses.

Copeland said Telus, another major telecom giant with a strong western customer base, neither engages in traffic shaping nor bills according to usage.

I mean last I checked my plan here, I get about 30Gigs to download a month and charged a bit more after that is used up.... but seriously if you're downloading more then 30gigs a month in the first place..... you got a problem and need to get out more.

 

[DurkaDurka]

Praxius, lots of people work from home which can consume large amounts of data on a monthly basis. I can easily eat up 30gb of data between online gaming and VPN's. Also, the fact that the 2 major Ontario ISP's cripples encrypted traffic, makes the caps all the more pointless.

Lets hope this type of filtering doesn't come our way anytime soon.

http://systems.cs.colorado.edu/mediawiki/index.php/Broadband_Network_Management

New traffic shaping can disrupt a Comcast Internet connection

Recently, it has been observed that Comcast is disrupting TCP connections using forged TCP reset (RST) packets [1]. These reset packets were originally targeted at TCP connections associated with the BitTorrent file-sharing protocol. However, Comcast has stated that they are transitioning to a more "protocol neutral" traffic shaping approach [2]. We have recently observed this shift in policy, and have collected network traffic traces to demonstrate the behavior of their traffic shaping. In particular, we are able (during peak usage times) to synthetically generate a relatively large number of TCP reset packets aimed at any new TCP connection regardless of the application-level protocol. Surprisingly, this traffic shaping even disrupts normal web browsing and e-mail applications. Specifically, we observe two different types of packet forgery and packets being discarded.
[edit]
Data collection methodology

We synthetically generated TCP SYN packets at a rate of 100 SYN packets per second using the hping utility [3]. The packets were destined for the reserved IP address 2.2.2.2, on which no host is present. We simultaneously collect network traces using tcpdump [4]. This data collection process was repeated at various times throughout multiple days. In addition, we could monitor a destination host to determine if outgoing packets reached their destination, and to determine if responses are generated by the destination host or by a third-party. Finally, this data collection was conducted from multiple Comcast accounts, all within close geographical proximity.
[edit]
Analysis of network traces

In this section, we present our network traces that show the network behavior while the TCP SYN packets are being sent. All traces were collected during peak usage hours (7-9pm local time). The first trace demonstrates an HTTP (web) connection being established, and subsequently being reset. The IP Time to Live (TTL) field for these forged TCP RST packets is consistently set to 255 (indicating that the forged RST packets are originating on one of the local Comcast links).
4717 41.307584 192.168.0.5 -> 207.68.173.231 TCP 53759 > www [SYN] Seq=0 Len=0 MSS=1460 TSV=504421360 TSER=0 WS=7

4718 41.308767 207.68.173.231 -> 192.168.0.5 TCP www > 53759 [SYN, ACK] Seq=0 Ack=1 Win=2048 Len=0 MSS=1460

4719 41.308792 192.168.0.5 -> 207.68.173.231 TCP 53759 > www [ACK] Seq=1 Ack=1 Win=5840 Len=0

4720 41.308852 192.168.0.5 -> 207.68.173.231 HTTP GET / HTTP/1.1

4721 41.310260 192.168.0.5 -> 2.2.2.2 TCP 7038 > www [SYN] Seq=0 Len=0

4722 41.310880 207.68.173.231 -> 192.168.0.5 TCP www > 53759 [RST] Seq=1 Len=0
The next trace shows a secure shell (SSH) connection being established and immediately reset. For this trace, we also captured the network traffic on the 128.138.x.x host. Surprisingly, absolutely no packets were received or sent from 128.138.x.x! This indicates that outgoing traffic from 192.168.1.104 is being dropped, and that the incoming responses from 128.138.x.x are being forged by Comcast.
3 0.036409 192.168.1.104 -> 128.138.x.x TCP 50051 > ssh [SYN] Seq=0 Len=0 MSS=1460 TSV=4498697 TSER=0 WS=5

4 0.038646 128.138.x.x -> 192.168.1.104 TCP ssh > 50051 [SYN, ACK] Seq=0 Ack=1 Win=2048 Len=0 MSS=1460

5 0.038672 192.168.1.104 -> 128.138.x.x TCP 50051 > ssh [ACK] Seq=1 Ack=1 Win=5840 Len=0

6 0.040426 128.138.x.x -> 192.168.1.104 TCP ssh > 50051 [RST] Seq=1 Len=0
The final trace is perhaps even more remarkable. A TCP SYN packet is sent to a non-routeable, reserved IP address (2.2.2.2) and a SYN, ACK packet is received in response. The only problem is that no host exists at 2.2.2.2! This again shows that the outgoing SYN packet is being dropped, and the "expected" response is being forged by Comcast. The IP TTL field for these forged TCP SYN, ACK packets is consistently set to 30.
4912 43.259271 192.168.0.5 -> 2.2.2.2 TCP 7222 > www [SYN] Seq=0 Len=0

4913 43.260406 2.2.2.2 -> 192.168.0.5 TCP www > 7222 [SYN, ACK] Seq=4159779480 Ack=1 Win=2048 Len=0 MSS=1460
From our experiments, we noticed that only outgoing TCP connections trigger TCP reset packets. Also, TCP connections established before the traffic shaping is activated are not effected, and it is possible to establish TCP connections to a host experiencing the traffic shaping. Finally, only TCP connections are effected.

 

[Nuggler]

Y'know Prax; I fer one am gettin a tad pissed at being nickeled and dimed to death.

A buck here, a buck there, and suddenly the "bundle" we subscribed to a few years ago through bell, has grown in cost, substantially.

Last time I inquired about cost of a certain portion, I was told that the bundle we bought was "quite a few years ago".............Well freakin duh, we bought the godam thing cause it was being offered partially to offset "future possible price increases".............:angry3:

May just go back to pay as you go, since the kids are now in the area, and long distance charges to BC are not a problem anymore............big reason for bundling.

Internet is handy for looking stuff up, CC, music, and so forth, but we can live without all the bells and whistles. Got all the musical stuff I will ever need, and have 1-800's for companies I might wish to contact.

Might just give Ma a call and tell her to shove it. Go to some other IN carrier, and a different phone provider. There are some pretty good deals to be had. When they expire, switch again. Used to do that and save a lot of $'s. Got lazy.

I talk to many more East Indians who have to repeat everything 5 times to be understood............(my fault of course),;; could happen soon.

eh.

yup.

dam straight.

:lol: