[AusNOG] "It's like grandfather's axe"

[Mark Delany]

On 23Nov13, Mark ZZZ Smith allegedly wrote:

> > And I mean a real, measurable QOS. How hard can it be to have the
> > customer-side NTU have a builtin QOS monitor? If the QOS light is red
> > the provider has a fault to fix. Simple.
> >?
> 
> How do you measure and assure the "QoS" of the Internet, when many, many parties are involved

Because the topic at hand is the last mile. There's only one party
involved between a residence and whatever their first termination
point is. QOS measurements are routinely tractable for this
application.

>in running it, including the end-users themselves when they install and operate their CPE and the devices that they use to access the Internet?

If you're QOS monitor is looking at the media transport on the last
mile then the customer devices are irrelevant. E.g., DSL sync errors
and BER are a reflection solely of the link quality, not what's
connected either side of them, or the traffic being transported.

As someone else mentioned, most DSL modems already provide a wealth of
QOS data, the suggestion is simply to codify a minimum acceptable
level below which the NTU turns on an out-of-spec light that removes
all the wiggle room that providers hide behind today. You know, like
rain, strong winds, smoke, daylight savings...


> > After all, if in 2020 we have "upto" 100Mb/s VDSL, but down to 0MB/s
> > when it rains with zero recourse, how much better off are we?
> >?
> 
> How do you know there will be zero recourse?

Status quo? A decade of history showing that many people have routinely
experienced zero recourse? The many credible anecdotes that are posted
here? The high probability that the incumbent presiding over our last
decade will be a major player in the next decade?

Frankly I'm a bit surprised you're asking that question. Could you
elaborate on why you think it will be different this time round? Every
pronouncement I've heard is loud on "up to" and silent on QOS.


Mark.