What happens when the Chorus Network Reaches Capacity?

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networkn

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#268611 28-Mar-2020 12:58

Hi.

So, I saw reports that we hit 3Tbit per second bandwidth peak over the past 24 hours. That is around .8Tbit increase over the day before.

The theoretical limit is 3.5Tbit, which isn't that far away, though Chorus says there are some temporary peaks which shouldn't occur every day.

What is the plan if we reach the peak, and what occurs then?

Does Chorus have the capability to add more, even temporarily to allow for greater usage? Is it a flick the switch, or massive deployment of more equipment everywhere (ie impractical).

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#2448785 28-Mar-2020 13:01

I would be worried about our international bandwidth out of New Zealand before we have to worry about domestically running out of bandwidth

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JeremyNzl

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#2448788 28-Mar-2020 13:03

Modernwarfare deployed a 20gig update yesterday, This game has been setting records for traffic with its popularity and significant size patches

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2020/03/call-of-duty-warzone-linx-sees-record-uk-internet-traffic.html

hio77

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#2448791 28-Mar-2020 13:06

JeremyNzl:
Modernwarfare deployed a 20gig update yesterday, This game has been setting records for traffic with its popularity and significant size patches

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2020/03/call-of-duty-warzone-linx-sees-record-uk-internet-traffic.html

It was actually 11gb, 22gb, 86gb or 171gb. Depending on device....

Insane.

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sbiddle

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#2448793 28-Mar-2020 13:07

nztim:

I would be worried about our international bandwidth out of New Zealand before we have to worry about domestically running out of bandwidth

Why? International bandwidth will never be an issue. You're forgetting what % of traffic never even leaves NZ due to CDNs.

djtOtago

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#2448797 28-Mar-2020 13:10

I would start with blocking Facebook, Youtube and Twitch. 😂

Talkiet

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#2448798 28-Mar-2020 13:15

From an extremely informed position, don't worry about this. All major streaming platforms are reducing their bitrates over the next few days (Although I don't think Pornhub is!) and I realistically expect peak streaming traffic volumes will be at OR BELOW normal levels in a few days.

International traffic is up, but it's not critical.

If there IS congestion (and I DON'T expect anything widespread), the CDNs all are able to detect this and they will reduce their bitrates further in order to make way for other interactive traffic.

Finally, TCP itself performs reasonably gracefully under increased latency/jitter and minor packet loss. Some realtime applications (games/voice) might not use TCP but they have their own application specific measures built in.

Remember, the ENTIRE INTERNET has been built as a best efforts service since its inception... Dealing with congestion, packet loss, increased latency and jitter is BAKED IN to every level of the networks.

Just like supermarket shopping, I expect everyone to panic, but just try and act normally - the Internet here in NZ will be fine.

Cheers - N

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yitz

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#2448841 28-Mar-2020 13:56

If the network does hit capacity we might see a return of handover link dimensioning.

That was a large factor to what constrained investment, especially on international capacity, for all those years.

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networkn

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#2448858 28-Mar-2020 14:20

I guess we will know tomorrow if they continue to report, how much of the 3Tb/s bandwidth was COD vs usual traffic.

I wasn't so much *worried* as interested.

hio77

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#2448859 28-Mar-2020 14:22

yitz:

If the network does hit capacity we might see a return of handover link dimensioning.

That was a large factor to what constrained investment, especially on international capacity, for all those years.

Chorus are working with all providers directly on this as are other LFC's.

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nztim

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#2448860 28-Mar-2020 14:24

sbiddle:

nztim:

I would be worried about our international bandwidth out of New Zealand before we have to worry about domestically running out of bandwidth

Why? International bandwidth will never be an issue. You're forgetting what % of traffic never even leaves NZ due to CDNs.

at a rough estimate.... 50% of people using netflix/prime/etc are using VPNs to other countries, rendering local CDNs under utilized

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myfullflavour

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#2448876 28-Mar-2020 14:42

yitz:
If the network does hit capacity we might see a return of handover link dimensioning.

That was a large factor to what constrained investment, especially on international capacity, for all those years.

No.

They'll add more line cards, aggregate more ports and you'll see that 3.5Tbps capacity figure climb.

Intravix

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#2448877 28-Mar-2020 14:42

Out of interest, where did you get the figure about Chorus having 3.5Tb/s of capacity? From my experience it's not the Chorus/LFC side that is most likely to show congestion. Also, it's not just a single pipe of "x" capacity for each network. There may be some OLT ports being hammered more than others, certain OLTs closer to the limit of the EAS link capacity, certain RSP handovers that are at capacity.

But from what I've seen all LFCs have had a similar uptick in traffic, some confirmed to have been greater than during the RWC (and any Fortnite patch).

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#2448878 28-Mar-2020 14:43

Talkiet: Just like supermarket shopping, I expect everyone to panic, but just try and act normally - the Internet here in NZ will be fine.

This. ^^^^

The fact Chorus run an uncongested network means that they have plenty of headroom to grow. There is only so many simultaneous 4K streams a household could require so there is a physical ceiling of network traffic unless there is a significant increase of population (who knows in 9 months time....) the only real growth will be from the ongoing migration from DSL to UFB.

And 4K streaming which comes from local CDNs is by far and above the most heavy consumer of data rather than VC or working from home. As you have to think all the VPN / VDI / Citrix solutions are designed to work over the US broadband network.

To me upstream was more of an issue, so I moved from 100/20 to GB yesterday and the kids screamed for about 20 seconds as PPPoE reconnected and life is fine. A 200/200 connection or even a 100/100 in the current circumstances would handle my family of 5 with 5+ devices concurrently streaming more than sufficiently.

myfullflavour

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#2448882 28-Mar-2020 14:55

Intravix:
Out of interest, where did you get the figure about Chorus having 3.5Tb/s of capacity? From my experience it's not the Chorus/LFC side that is most likely to show congestion.

Chorus must have done some PR that NZHerald etc picked up. It's some sort of aggregation of their current network capacity.

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#2448884 28-Mar-2020 14:56

Intravix:

Out of interest, where did you get the figure about Chorus having 3.5Tb/s of capacity? From my experience it's not the Chorus/LFC side that is most likely to show congestion.

https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/early-edition/audio/kurt-rodgers-from-chorus-broadband-traffic-hits-new-record/

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