Category Archives: Internet
Update: Bell Users’ Average Bandwidth Use
( Source ) Just a quick note about an interesting tidbit that was passed out by the Bell rep who gave a presentation on DPI today: A few years ago (no precise dates given) users were consuming, on average, 1GB of traffic; this has risen tenfold since that date. As Bell has repeatedly stated in CRTC submissions, they are not caching personally identifiable information as packets course through their DPI equipment, but still maintain that they are looking into the application layer of packets, but not the ‘content’ of the packet. … In the next day or so, I’ll be putting up more thoughts and facts that emerged through the 10th annual security and privacy conference, ” Life in a Digital Fishbowl “. Continue reading
Summary: CRTC PN 2008-19; Requests for Public Disclosure Filings
A few things that I found of interest: TELUS is being used as a lever against the other ISPs; the common metric is “TELUS released all this information in public, so what justification can the rest of the ISPs have for filing in confidence?” … CAIP, PAIC, and the Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA) all argue that it is important for clear, technical, explanations of congestion be provided – without this, it is challenging to effectively interrogate what is, or isn’t, happening on ISPs’ networks. PIAC stands that, if Bell didn’t have a congestion metric in place prior to January 2007 then they should be obligated to disclose information in public on the basis that their definitions of congestion need to be examined more closely than others (unstated, but this is in part because they are such a major player in Canada). Continue reading
Thoughts: Deep Packet Inspection Analogies
When reading the ISP’s CRTC filings, I keep reading that they use DPI devices for flow analysis – they’re not looking for the content of your email, they just want to identify whether you’re sending email or an instant message. … This analysis allows the postal service/ISPs to more efficiently identify when they need to make adjustments to their transmission network – where it is found that people are sending packages that are all marked ‘delicate’, and the packages actually contain crystal swans, extra training should be provided to mail handlers so that they don’t damage items. … Regardless, I think that it might be a better metaphor (if slightly longer, and thus a little less sexy) to try and explain how Canadian ISPs appear to be using DPI equipment in their day-to-day operations to throttle particular Internet traffic based on its content-type. Continue reading
Comment: Canadian ISPs and Internet Traffic Management
I’ve recently put up a document that summarized most of the first round of filings for the CRTC’s investigation of Canadian ISP traffic management practices (PN 2008-19), and thought that I’d post a few things that I thought were most … Continue reading
