Network management is essential, but shouldn’t be discriminatory: BitTorrent

BitTorrent Inc. has shot back at ISPs arguing that peer-to-peer (P2P) traffic is hogging the network and therefore requires them to perform application-specific throttling. In a letter to the CRTC, the company says that while “network management is essential to the preservation of Internet-based business models, it is our view that these management practices are not required to be, nor should they be, discriminatory in nature.” The P2P application provider says Comcast got it right in the wake of the Federal Communications Commission’s decision declaring the company’s previous traffic management practices illegal. Following the ruling, Comcast switched from application-specific management to a user-based approach that focuses on managing heavy users during periods of congestion. “In this way, every user is accorded his or her fair share, regardless of the applications in use or destinations involved,” reads the July 28 letter. “Network management need not run afoul of the principles of network neutrality and ISPs can effectively manage their users that induce congestion rather than discriminate against the general use of a specific application.” BitTorrent’s comments come late in the CRTC’s proceeding on Internet Traffic Management Practices (ITMPs). The proceeding was kicked off last November, culminating in a week-long oral hearing earlier this month. Final comments were due yesterday. BitTorrent also took a shot at some ISPs for their contention that P2P was in fact hogging the network on a 24/7 basis. This is an exaggerated claim, the company said, noting the average BitTorrent client is active around 4 days each month, or between 10-20% of the time. “Each client checks into BitTorrent servers when it starts up or has been on/active for 24 hours. This check-in is to determine if there is a new version of the software available to download. From these logs, we know that the average client is ‘on’ or active for 10-20% of the days of any given month,” BitTorrent writes in a footnote. The company also explained that new developments will help ISPs more effectively deal with congestion without having to resort to application-specific traffic management practices. BitTorrent points to uTP, a protocol that senses congestion in the network and then yields when competing applications are fighting for network resources. “When this pre-congestive state is observed, the protocol is designed to slow down or stop, in effect, yielding capacity to other applications (e.g. VoIP, gaming or even web surfing),” the company explains. The technology is not yet deployed commercially but has been in beta testing at BitTorrent since 2007. The company is co-chairing an Internet Engineering Task Force working group with Microsoft Corp. to deal with network congestion issues and has presented its uTP specification as a draft solution. “Once deployed uTP should allow the networks to reclaim vast amounts of bandwidth in the presence of substantial BitTorrent traffic,” the company suggests. “uTP is a technology that achieves many of the stated goals of ITMP (at least as defined by these proceedings), but does so in a subtle and elegant manner allowing users near instantaneous access to the network when congestion is not an issue, and it comes at zero cost to the ISP as there is no expensive equipment to procure, manage and maintain,” reads the BitTorrent letter.

Network management is essential, but shouldn’t be discriminatory: BitTorrent

Broadcast | July 29, 2009

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