Cable, Telco Web Network P4P Tests Said to Progress
Tests of a way to speed peer-to-peer file transfers and similar bandwidth-intensive use of ISPs (CD April 17 p8) are proceeding well, said participants. The trials, involving about a half dozen cable operators and telcos, go further than an earlier round and could be finished at month’s end, with full results coming later, Distributed Computing Industry Association CEO Martin Lafferty said. Both he and Pando Networks CEO Robert Levitan said the data should show that P4P -- a standard letting networks owned by various ISPs communicate with each other -- works on both cable and telco networks using Pando’s product and lets P2P applications sap less network capacity.
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Comcast and Verizon had gone public about participating, and AT&T now is doing the same, said Lafferty and Levitan. “As a member of DCIA, we look forward to continuing our cooperative relationship with this important industry forum, exploring mutually advantageous efforts such as participating in P4P trials,” a spokesman said. Verizon is taking part in P4P tests through DCIA, a spokesman said. A Comcast spokeswoman declined to comment. Besides those three companies, several other “major ISP brands” are “actively” participating in the trials, said Levitan, declining to name them. Pando’s product is being tested by more than a million people, using more than 3,000 other ISPs, to whom the company sent a 3-5 minute video of 20-50 Mbps, he said. The video tests P4P’s effectiveness, and the broadband providers span “the globe,” he said.
Tests are likely to find that P4P works as well on cable broadband networks as on DSL or fiber-based networks, Levitan said. “There were some people who wondered would P4P be as effective on cable systems as it was on fiber,” he said. “I think we will prove that it is as effective and maybe even more effective.” The trial, of whether network efficiency rises when P4P is used for traffic between networks owned by different ISPs, may find that’s so, he said. “I think that we will prove that network operating costs will be reduced.”
Preliminary results and methods likely will be presented Aug. 4 at the P2P Media Summit in San Jose, Calif., Lafferty and Levitan said. The data may not show how P4P affected specific ISPs, since participants may not want to publicize results until they've had a chance to review them, they said. “It’s different than testing a TV pilot or something like that,” said Lafferty. “It’s taken a long time to build a level of trust with the various entities” that the test will protect consumer privacy and proprietary information, he said.
The next round of tests, slated for fall, may involve P2P applications other than Pando, said Lafferty and Levitan. Kontiki, LimeWire and Vuze likely will take part, they said. Abacast and PeerApp are among other P2P vendors who've “expressed interest,” said Levitan. “We're still recruiting participants,” Lafferty said.
New DCIA member Comcast is “taking a leadership role” in converting its broadband network to treat all traffic so as to avoid slowing certain applications but not others, Lafferty said. The FCC is about to vote on an order finding that the cable operator violated network neutrality principles by slowing BitTorrent P2P transfers (CD July 17 p10), a threat some say has driven Comcast executives to speak with FCC Chairman Kevin Martin about a possible settlement. “An FCC consent decree with voluntary conditions is, in general, a model that the DCIA supports,” said Lafferty. Such a deal “is comparable to a variety of relationship agreements in the private sector,” he added.
One net neutrality rule proponent wants more transparent tests. Parties wanting details on the tests shouldn’t have to sign non-disclosure agreements, Media Access Project Senior Vice President Harold Feld said. “The danger that [participants] are going to go into a back room and come up with something that serves the purposes of the people in the back room rather than the broader public interest concerns is quite high,” he said. Still, he said “it’s very important for the industry to be doing this kind of testing, to be exploring these new technologies.”