Last week, Sandvine provided some facts and figures on the impact the closing of popular storage and back-up service Megaupload had on networks across the globe.

With the media and legal spotlight being shined on this traffic category in recent days, a number of competing sites have either decided to shut themselves down, or dramatically alter the way files are uploaded or downloaded from their servers.

One such service to make such a drastic change was FileSonic, who has halted any new uploads, and is only allowing users to download their personal files. Read the rest of this entry »

=There is considerable confusion in the consumer network access industry regarding the objective of congestion relief (traffic management) and that of market-segmentation and value-definition (usage management). In particular, many players often try to message that they are addressing congestion using volume limits, when in fact this is less effective.

I’ll refer to congestion occurring closest to the subscriber as the “weak link”.  Not surprisingly, the most effective (in terms of relieving the congestion) and most fair (to subscribers) way to manage this congestion is by implementing corrective policies that are localized at the site of the congestion itself. In fact, this precise approach is what the FCC defines as “narrowly tailored”.  Referring to Figure 1 below, if congestion occurs at the weak link (see A*) location and affects only users 1-5, then correcting that instance of congestion is ideal because Internet user traffic in other network locations such as locations B and C need not be touched.

Sandvine manages link congestion by examining, identifying, and prioritizing time-sensitive gaming, VoIP and streaming applications, over non time-sensitive applications such as emailing and browsing, or, alternatively, prioritising the users who are causing the least congestion vs. those who are causing the most in a short time interval.  You and I don’t notice if we get an email 2 or 3 seconds later, but we will be upset if our voice calls are garbled and we can’t understand each other.  Read the rest of this entry »

Twice a year, Sandvine publishes our Global Internet Phenomena Report, which provides network operators, as well as subscribers, an in-depth analysis of what is happening on both fixed and mobile networks across the globe.

The research we conduct for the study gives a great snapshot of what is currently happening on broadband networks, but we thought it might be fun to take some of that insight and mix it with what we have been hearing from network operators, to make some predictions for 2012.

So without further ado, here are Sandvine’s five broad(band) projections for 2012:

Read the rest of this entry »

As we reported in our Fall 2011 Internet Phenomena Report, 55% of all Real-Time Entertainment traffic in the United States now goes to devices other than PCs. By far the biggest driver of that traffic is Netflix, which users can access on tablets, smart TVs, set-top boxes, and game consoles.

Examining data from Sandvine’s Netflix Rising report released in the Spring, the Xbox 360 accounts for almost 25% of Netflix’s total traffic on fixed access networks.  This figure demonstrates that subscribers are more than willing to use their Xbox 360 as an entertainment hub and the list of video providers made available to them on that device is set to grow substantially.

Beginning today, Microsoft will be rolling out a software update that will offer Xbox 360 owners (at least, those who pay $60 a year to be Xbox Live Gold members) access to a wide range of both on-demand and live video content on their TV .

IPTV is not a new feature on the Xbox, as Microsoft had some limited partnerships with select communications service providers and channels such as ESPN. With this software update however,  Microsoft is making an even bigger push by forming partnerships with some  Internet and media heavy-hitters such as Verizon, HBO, BBC, Rogers, and YouTube, just to name a few. 

Access to certain content will differ based on country and Internet provider due to licensing restrictions, but Microsoft is certainly trying to have the Xbox 360 be the one-stop shop for all of your home entertainment needs, and the only device you need connected to your TV.

With over 57 million Xbox 360s sold worldwide to date, how many of them are on your network? The number of owners and the number of soon-to-be-available live streaming options will present unique challenges to network operators.  Live video demands a high Quality of Experience (QoE), and traffic optimization options such as caching are limited for live video.  Operators will need to ensure their networks are engineered for quality because, while the Xbox may be among the first devices to offer a wide range of live streaming video, it is unlikely to be the last.

We will be keeping a close eye on how users adopt this new service, and will aim to bring some insightful data on subscriber usage the near future.