[luau] Broadband in Hawaii Notes

[Matt Darnell]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "MonMotha" <monmotha at indy.rr.com>
To: <luau at videl.ics.hawaii.edu>
Sent: Monday, May 26, 2003 4:52 PM
Subject: Re: [luau] Broadband in Hawaii Notes


> > What DSL offers over cable is a consistant throughput.  I know there is
no
> > CIR with DSL but all of our tests and outside sources have indicated
that
> > cable burts higher but DSL is more staeady.  I always recommend people
to
> > get cable and home and DSL at work.
> >
> > -Matt
>
>
> Part of this is telephone propaganda.  Your traffic still "mixes" with
other
> peoples', just at a different point (DSLAM instead of local subnet).
>
> Depending on how crowded your cable subnet is, it may be impossible to
exceed
> the max bandwidth for the subnet given the caps on the cable modems. For
> example, there's like two people on my subnet with a cable modem, each
capped at
> 2Mbit down, 386kbit up.  The capacity of a DOCIS 1.x CM subnet is (IIRC)
52Mbit.
>   Needless to say, it is impossible for the two of us to starve the local
> physical network.  Therefore, the only potential problems are at the
uplink.  I
> think RR indy has an OC3 to ATDN cinci and a DS3 to some place in Chicago
(just
> recently added, I'm not sure about the actual line, tho they do insist
that the
> ATDN link is indeed an OC3).  That's a lot of bandwidht (though everyone
in
> northern indianapolis with a cable modem is on that link pretty much).
I've
> heard of people hooking their DSLAMs up to a T1.  That's darn slow.
>
> Basically, you can screw up a system like this no matter what method is
used.
> DSL just gives you a dedicated pipe the the DSLAM.  Where it goes from
tehre you
> have little control over.  The only issue with cable modems is crowded
subnets.
>   This can be especially problematic in older areas that the cable was
installed
> in before the anticipation of modern digital services like cable modems
and
> video on demand where LOTS of people share the same physical backbone.
>
> Really, I tell people to take advantage of the trial offers and get both
> (assuming you can get the DSL without a contract).  Often, with the
introductory
> trials, you can have both for the price of one for a few months.  Try out
both
> and see which is better in your area.  I set a small business up with a
DSL line
> at 1.5/768 and it works REALLY well.  Someone just a couple miles down the
> street had DSL and dumped it for a cable modem because it was horrible.

I agree, it is possible to screw anything up!  We do a lot of things like
Citrix, the servers are in a central point, our customers suffer until they
get on our DSL, our customers are 4 hops from our servers.  Makes a
difference with "real time" apps like terminal servers and IP telephony.

People on other DSL or cable are 8 hops at the least.

-Matt