Study sparks new rumblings on peer-to-peer networking
It’s the latest wrinkle in the growing debate about peer-to-peer networking: a new study by a German computer research group suggesting that U.S. cable broadband providers Comcast and Cox Communications are slowing BitTorrent traffic at all times of the day and not just during peak traffic.
The study comes a few months after the Federal Communications Commission launched an investigation into Comcast’s alleged blocking of BitTorrent traffic in response to a complaint filed by Free Press and members of the SavetheInternet.com Coalition – plus thousands of letters from people concerned about their ability to do peer-to-peer networking. (The Associated Press first exposed Comcast last fall for actively interfering with peer-to-peer file-sharing networks.) At the same time, the FCC is looking into what constitutes reasonable network management among all broadband providers.
The study, conducted by the Max Plank Institute for Software Systems, used more than 8,000 nodes worldwide to test for BitTorrent blocking. It found that Comcast was interrupting at least 30% of BitTorrent upload attempts throughout the day while Comcast was at noon ET interrupting more than 80% of BitTorrent traffic. “Our data suggests that the BitTorrent blocking [by Comcast and Cox] is independent of the time of day,” the study said. The test examined 1,224 ISPs worldwide.
“Comcast doesn’t have to do this because if it did so would every other cable company in the world, and that’s not what the study found,” said Marvin Ammori, general counsel of Free Press. “What it found is that only Comcast and Cox are harming consumers and not upgrading their systems.”
Ammori added that ISPs are “dragging their feet” because they don’t have too much competition and it’s cheaper for them not to upgrade. “It’s not delaying service – but degrading service,” he said.
Comcast insists it does not block any Web sites or applications and that any slowdown is due to managing peer-to-peer traffic and making sure that their “pipes” are not overly taxed.
“Comcast does not, has not, and will not block any websites or online applications, including peer-to-peer services like BitTorrent,” Comcast said in a news statement. “We have acknowledged that we manage peer-to-peer traffic in a limited manner to minimize network congestion.”
In response to an inquiry about the study, Cox provided the following statement:
“Cox’s network management practices ensure that bandwidth-intensive applications don’t negatively impact our customers’ Internet service. Cox allows the use of file-sharing and peer-to-peer services for uploads and downloads, and we allow access to all legal content, but we must manage the traffic impact of peer-to-peer services, as most ISPs do for the benefit of the customer. We’ll continue to seek even better ways to manage our network to ensure a high-quality experience for our customers.
Comcast, which is said in March that it will move to a “protocol-agnostic” network management by December 31, is working with several content providers, including BitTorrent, to try to and craft remedies to ameliorate peer-to-peer networking.
On May 19 Comcast announced a collaborative relationship with GridNetworks, which delivers online video; the deal also includes an undisclosed investment from Comcast Interactive Capital.
In April Comcast and Pando Networks said they would spark an industry-wide effort to create a “P2P Bill of Rights and Responsibilities” (which has since morphed into creating a P2P Best Practices).
A month earlier Comcast and BitTorrent said they will undertake a collaborative effort with one another and with the broader Internet and ISP community to address the delivery of rich-media content. (The agreement doesn’t mean that Comcast will stop doing managing p-to-p traffic.)
“We appreciate Comcast’s leadership in embracing BitTorrent (as per our announced collaboration in late March), especially given their commitment to migrate to protocol-agnostic network management techniques by the end of 2008,” said BitTorrent president and co-founder Ashwin Navin, in an e-mail. “We hope for more participation by other ISPs within that timeframe as well.”
Laird Popkin, CTO of Pando Networks and co-chair of DCIA’s P4PWG, said content providers and ISPs need to move quickly to address peer-to-peer networking.
“With better coordination P2P networks will be better informed about data choices,” he said. “P2P is a relatively young industry. But if the industry can manage itself, that’s preferable to a government agency.”
Comcast, as well as telecom giants AT&T and Verizon are part of the Distributed Computing Industry Association’s P4P Working Group (P4PWG), which includes Pando, LimeWire, and BitTorrent.
“Consumer adaptation [of P2P networks] has taken everyone’s breath away,” said Marty Lafferty, CEO of DCIA. “It’s moved so rapidly from sharing little snippets of information to sharing full-length feature films [and the like] that consumer demand is putting enormous strains on the networks.”
He added: “Nothing will happen unless all of the groups [with a stake in P2P] work together to come up with a more advanced solution on how to deliver rich content.”
Doug Pasko, senior technologist at Verizon Communications and co-chair of DCIA’s P4PWG, said: “We need to find ways to manage the infrastructure. We’re focusing our efforts on improving optimization of end-users, which goes hand-in-hand with the Internet of the future and more upload capacity.”
Verizon earlier this year participated in a test of a new P2P file transfer system that guides the selection of file sources and network pathways rather than letting the selection happen randomly.
Using network topology data from Verizon and Telephonica, Yale University tested a software enhancement to the P2P protocol that it developed with Pando. The result: P2P traffic on Verizon’s network was reduced by more than 50%. (Peer-to-peer traffic makes up about half of all traffic traveling over Verizon’s network.)
Although cable companies and telecoms are working with industry groups on peer-to-peer networking, they’re still reportedly lobbying Congress against so-called Net Neutrality, which would require all Web sites to be treated equally.
In February Reps. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Chip Pickering (R-Miss.) introduced the “Internet Freedom Preservation Act” – a bill that establishes baseline consumer protections in communications law to ensure the Internet is open and free from discrimination regardless of the platform. But in a presidential election year, any legislation that would have such an enormous impact is unlikely to see any light.
Matthew Schwartz is Senior Editor of ScribeMedia.org and host of the WebTV series, From Print to Digital.
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