GNG News Guy
04-28-2008, 09:41 AM
http://i.dslr.net/urls/71/4471.gif (http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/ATT-To-Vuze-We-Dont-Throttle-BitTorrent-93955)
Last week P2P client developers Azureus/Vuze released data (http://www.thegng.org/shownews/93773) they collected from a new Azureus plugin. That plugin detects the total number of network interruptions from false RST TCP packets, with some highly contested results. As we've covered extensively, Comcast uses false RST TCP packets to throttle upstream P2P traffic. The Azureus data ranked ISPs by the percentage of network interruptions caused by these packets, though the data doesn't discern between routine or intentional disruptions.
While it was no surprise to see Comcast at the top of the list (23.72% network interruption rate), it was interesting to see BellSouth on the list (15.88% network interruption rate). Vuze/Azureus, who admitted the limitations of their data, e-mailed AT&T (http://gigaom.com/2008/04/21/vuze-plugin-will-show-isps-messing-with-p2p/) with their findings in a quest to find out more. From a letter sent from Vuze CEO Gilles BianRosa to AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson: while we appreciate the methodological limitations of our data, and therefore have drawn no firm conclusions from it, we believe the results show a significant enough difference in the level of resets from one network operator to another, to warrant asking certain network operators to describe their network management practices. In reviewing our data we have identified that the rate of reset activity in the ASN pertaining to your company appears to be higher than many others.
AT&T's response is rather definitive (http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9929158-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5):In response to your specific question about AT&T's network management practices, AT&T does not use "false reset messages" to manage its network. We agree with Vuze that the use of the Vuze Plug-In to measure network traffic has numerous limitations and deficiencies, and does not demonstrate whether any particular network providers or their customers are using TCP Reset messages for network management purposes. Given that Vuze itself has recognized these problems with the measurements generated by its Plug-In, we believe that Vuze should not have published these misleading measurements, nor filed them with the FCC. Moreover, as Vuze and others have acknowledged, TCP resets are generated for many reasons wholly unrelated to the network management practices of broadband network providers, which explains why resets may appear on networks of companies such as AT&T who do not use TCP resets for network management.
AT&T vice president of Internet and network systems research Charles Kalmanek, in a letter to Vuze, claims that BellSouth's higher than normal average disconnect rate can be attributed to attacks, outages, reconfigurations or other general trends in Internet usage.
Last week P2P client developers Azureus/Vuze released data (http://www.thegng.org/shownews/93773) they collected from a new Azureus plugin. That plugin detects the total number of network interruptions from false RST TCP packets, with some highly contested results. As we've covered extensively, Comcast uses false RST TCP packets to throttle upstream P2P traffic. The Azureus data ranked ISPs by the percentage of network interruptions caused by these packets, though the data doesn't discern between routine or intentional disruptions.
While it was no surprise to see Comcast at the top of the list (23.72% network interruption rate), it was interesting to see BellSouth on the list (15.88% network interruption rate). Vuze/Azureus, who admitted the limitations of their data, e-mailed AT&T (http://gigaom.com/2008/04/21/vuze-plugin-will-show-isps-messing-with-p2p/) with their findings in a quest to find out more. From a letter sent from Vuze CEO Gilles BianRosa to AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson: while we appreciate the methodological limitations of our data, and therefore have drawn no firm conclusions from it, we believe the results show a significant enough difference in the level of resets from one network operator to another, to warrant asking certain network operators to describe their network management practices. In reviewing our data we have identified that the rate of reset activity in the ASN pertaining to your company appears to be higher than many others.
AT&T's response is rather definitive (http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9929158-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5):In response to your specific question about AT&T's network management practices, AT&T does not use "false reset messages" to manage its network. We agree with Vuze that the use of the Vuze Plug-In to measure network traffic has numerous limitations and deficiencies, and does not demonstrate whether any particular network providers or their customers are using TCP Reset messages for network management purposes. Given that Vuze itself has recognized these problems with the measurements generated by its Plug-In, we believe that Vuze should not have published these misleading measurements, nor filed them with the FCC. Moreover, as Vuze and others have acknowledged, TCP resets are generated for many reasons wholly unrelated to the network management practices of broadband network providers, which explains why resets may appear on networks of companies such as AT&T who do not use TCP resets for network management.
AT&T vice president of Internet and network systems research Charles Kalmanek, in a letter to Vuze, claims that BellSouth's higher than normal average disconnect rate can be attributed to attacks, outages, reconfigurations or other general trends in Internet usage.