ISPs Asked to Disclose Network Management Practices
Four large Internet service providers were asked to disclose their network-management practices by an online video provider whose petition for rulemaking the FCC is reviewing (CD Jan 15 p2). In an ongoing but limited study cited by that company in its requests to the ISPs, Vuze said it found many communications over AOL, AT&T, Cablevision and Cogeco networks being interrupted. It asked those companies to specify their practices, including whether so-called false-reset messages are being used. The messages can block downloads of peer-to-peer files, video streaming and other bandwidth intensive applications that slow networks.
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About 8,000 users of Vuze installed software on their PCs to monitor the use of reset messages, which can also be routine signals to end online communications. Based on a million hours’ worth of data gathered by those users, a Comcast system had the highest median reset rate, 24 percent of all attempted network connections, Vuze said. Cogeco, a Canadian cable operator, had the second-highest, 19 percent, in one of its data networks. Cablevision had a 18 percent rate in one system, and AOL had a 15 percent rate in one. A system of BellSouth, now part of AT&T, had a 16 percent rate.
Vuze provided the results in an e-mail late Monday to two aides to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, who has criticized Comcast as blocking P2P traffic. “While Vuze, therefore, has drawn no firm conclusions from its network monitoring study, it believes the results are significant enough to raise them with network operators.” The company asked to speak with the ISPs about their network management, it told the commission.
But none of the four companies responded to Vuze’s letters, sent Thursday by overnight mail, General Counsel Jay Monahan said in an interview. He acknowledged the limitations of the study: Vuze couldn’t determine a normal reset rate. It’s also possible that users of the networks used more applications for shorter times than assumed, which would raise the reset rate without the use of network management practices decried by Martin and others. “We certainly know and acknowledge that there is some natural amount occurring, and we have not attempted to compare this” to an average for ISPs, said Monahan. “I certainly would like to hear someone explain why those discrepancies are normal… We're not being accusatory, we're not reaching any conclusions.”
AT&T doesn’t use false reset messages to manage network congestion, a company spokesman said. “While knowing that its ’study’ is seriously flawed, Vuze’s filing of it with the FCC and its use of these numbers to imply that network providers are engaging in improper network management is not only highly misleading, but irresponsible,” he added. AT&T is trying to get additional information about the study from Vuze, he said.
Cogeco never got Vuze’s letter and doesn’t block data transmissions, said a spokeswoman for the cable operator. Vuze sampled 22 of its approximately 456,000 broadband subscribers, she said. “The sampling is so small that for us, it’s not really relevant data,” she said “And since we don’t do those artificial or intentional disruptions, it’s sort of strange.” A spokeswoman for AOL said it generally doesn’t disclose details about its network operations infrastructure for security purposes. She couldn’t say whether that policy will apply to Vuze.
Vuze didn’t write Comcast because that company has already said it’s working with BitTorrent, Pando and others on P2P and other traffic, Monahan said. Cablevision and Comcast officials didn’t return messages to comment or said they couldn’t comment right away.