

In a recent article I described some possible techniques that ISPs may use to block and or deceive their customers when it comes to delivery of bandwidth rates to the home. I wrote this article without specifically implicating any provider, as that was not my intention. My motive was simply to educate, and encourage the consumer to be wise in making a choice when picking an Internet provider.

Flash forward now to a recent article on Jan 8, where Comcast is now being investigating by the FCC for blocking BitTorrent traffic. The request was initiated by Vuze , a company that benefits by distributing content over the Internet.

When a content provider such as Vuze uses BitTorrent for file distribution, both the supplier and consumer obviously benefit. But do torrents put an unfair strain on the provider (Comcast) who carries this traffic ?

How it works

First of all, lets look behind the scenes at how BitTorrent can affect a large ISP’s network.



In addition to looking for multiple sources for a single file, BitTorrent clients allow the user to attempt more than one file download at a time. This behavior further multiplies the number of active connections from your computer to the Internet. The amount of concurrent connections generated by one home user to the Internet can reach into the thousands. Compare that number of connections with somebody who passively browses the web, and perhaps runs an AIM messenger client on their home computer; their connection total would not exceed fifteen or so at any moment in time.

But multiple connections generate tremendous overhead for a provider, too.

Each connection from your computer across the Internet must be accounted for in various switching points (routers) in order for the data to flow. You can imagine these switching points as little traffic police standing at the intersection of a street during a 5K road race telling the runners where to turn. Now imagine thousands of races running all over the city at one time; each starting and terminating at a different location. Obviously the traffic cops would get overwhelmed and have to restore some order, like making sure organizers did not run their races all at the same time. In a nutshell, that is one of the motivations for a service provider to try and limit torrents. The spontaneous and overwhelming number of connections they can create can overwhelm their circuits.






So now we have a sticky situation where providers such as Comcast are walking a tightrope. In no way do they intend to spy on what their customers are doing with BitTorrent content. But in order to balance their costs and demands, ISPs are looking for techniques to relieve the congestion (both traffic and connections) caused by BitTorrent. Their mistake, if anything, has been to quietly try to mitigate the effects of BitTorrent and still provide decent service without publishing exactly how they are doing it. They are caught in the middle.

There are several ways that providers can mitigate the effects of BitTorrent and their number of connections: some good, some bad — and all with compromises.

Next: The Solutions