[c-nsp] Typical broadband aggregation rates

[Matthew Crocker]

It depends on the type of customer,  for residential DSL I tend to  
count them in a 100:1 over subscription bucket.  Business DSL is 10:1  
but their usage patterns are different.  I sell bandwidth to some  
local colleges and they are 1:1,  they buy 30mbps, they use 99% of  
that 80% of the time.  One college recently  went from 30mbps to  
50mbps (delivered via GigE) they immediately filled the 50mbps as  
soon as I increased the policing rate.  I'm sure they would fill 100  
or 200mbps if I opened up their port that much.

Think of it as bytes/day instead of bits per second.  Your average  
customers usage isn't going to change.  They will still play their  
online games (constant PPS),  they will  still download their iTunes  
(bytes/day).  If you give them more bandwidth they will just do it in  
less time.   You can only download so many movies AND watch them in a  
day.  If they are doing file sharing then all bets are off but they  
are few and far between (in my network anyway).

If you're big enough look at getting some Akamai boxes inside your  
network.  My Akamai boxes save me roughly 10-15% of my bandwidth  
upstream.  Watching NBC shows (The Black Donnelly's) online from my  
house (ADSL) streams from the Akamai boxes in my office kinda neat, I  
like being a network geek. My wife just looks at me funny.

-Matt
--
Matthew S. Crocker
President
Crocker Communications, Inc.
Internet Division
PO BOX 710
Greenfield, MA 01302-0710
http://www.crocker.com