Fiber broadband: Know what you're signing up for

Fiber broadband: Traffic shaping & gaming plans

3.) Traffic shaping

In a nutshell, traffic shaping is a network management technique often used by ISPs to ensure that their networks operate in an efficient manner. Wikipedia has a very good explanation of what it entails: “Traffic shaping provides a means to control the volume of traffic being sent into a network in a specified period (bandwidth throttling), or the maximum rate at which the traffic is sent (rate limiting)”.

Now, traffic shaping has sort of become a dirty word among advanced users because for it to work, some traffic are prioritized over others. Broadly speaking, ISPs who implement traffic shaping (or traffic management) aren’t really bothered by high HTTP, FTP, or SMTP traffic. However, they’re very concerned with P2P (peer-to-peer) traffic (e.g., file sharing using BitTorrent). For the most part, the reason given is sound: it’s to ensure that the small percentage of P2P users don’t use up the majority of the bandwidth at the expense of other, non-P2P users. Yes, it’s true that the fiber broadband ‘pipe’ is way larger than ADSL or cable’s, but ISPs will be quick to point out that all of Singapore’s fiber broadband services run on a shared residential-grade fiber broadband service provisioned by OpenNet, and so, it’s never dedicated.

In Singapore, the three major ISPs (SingTel, StarHub, M1) are known to perform network management. In general, they all target P2P protocols and the traffic shaping kicks in during peak hours (e.g., 6pm to 2am on weekdays, 11am to 2am on weekends). Of course, each ISP has its own implementation details, so one ISP’s network management policy may kick in earlier or throttle the speed more than the other. Also, while traffic shaping isn’t usually done during off peak hours, it isn’t a rule cast in stone. It may still kick in if the level of P2P activity has crossed a predetermined threshold. When it happens, the download speed of your P2P app is greatly reduced, sometimes by as much as four times. Of course, if you’re only browsing the web, replying emails, or watching YouTube, and don’t use P2P apps, you shouldn’t notice any slowdown.

Naturally, most of the people who are against traffic shaping are those who use P2P applications. There are also some who believe all types of traffic should be treated equally. For these users, their frustrations are understandable: what’s the point of a super-high-speed connection if they can’t make use of it fully? This is why many heavy P2P users have turned to ISPs like MyRepublic and ViewQwest.

According to MyRepublic’s FAQ, because it employs a flexible traffic data prioritization system, it sees no need to impose a hard bandwidth cap or BitTorrent blocking. But it then goes on to say that this is assuming the P2P apps don’t disrupt higher priority applications like video streaming and gaming. That said, a MyRepublic spokesperson told us it’s unlikely that its network can’t cope with P2P traffic, as the company always plans for redundancy, and will actively increase the capacity to cater for higher loads.

For ViewQwest, its FAQ has a question that goes like this: "Does ViewQwest restrict any ports or do any traffic shaping?" Its answer is short and sweet: "No."

All that said, know that traffic shaping is just one way to explain slow P2P download speeds. Your computer’s configuration, the P2P app you use and its settings, and the number of peering nodes all play a part to determine the eventual speed. In other words, don’t always blame your ISP. And to reiterate, if you don’t do P2P file sharing (to be fair, most subscribers don’t), you shouldn’t be affected at all by your ISP’s traffic shaping policy; on the contrary, it ensures your Internet experience isn’t being adversely affected by those who’re abusing the bandwidth.

4.) Gaming-oriented plans

You may have noticed that some ISPs are also offering gamer-centric fiber broadband plans, such as M1’s 300Mbps GamePro plan and MyRepublic’s 1Gbps Gamer Ultra Edition plan.

In short, these plans offer features that appeal to online gamers, such as low latency (through custom routing). For MyRepublic’s case, its network data prioritization system already ranks gaming traffic as the highest priority, alongside VoIP and network protocols like DNS and SSL. In addition, it attempts to minimize latency (or lag) further through custom routing to specific overseas game servers, even during peak hours. To sweeten the deal even more, the plan offers additional game bonuses and retail privileges.

For M1’s gaming plan, it’s the same story: gaming traffic gets the highest prioritization, committed lower latency, custom routes to overseas servers, and gaming-related freebies (currently, it’s a SteelSeries Sensei mouse). At this point, you may wonder if being on the ‘slower’ 300Mbps subscribed speed means its gaming performance isn’t as good as MyRepublic’s 1Gbps gamer plan. In theory, the higher bandwidth doesn’t count for anything if the latency or response time is high, and the information doesn’t reach you quick enough. Of course, assuming both having the same low latency, MyRepublic’s plan is on paper more attractive because it has bandwidth to spare if you’re also engaging other activities like downloading files or if other members in the family are sharing the same connection.

On the other hand, there are people who dislike such gaming-oriented plans, because they also see this as a form of traffic shaping, and that the latency is adjusted via software means, which in turn enables ISPs to come out with more expensive plans. Naturally, for most of us, the question is whether that means online games are unplayable on our non-gaming plans. If you look at the latency report on IDA’s website, average international (rather, U.S.) latency among the ISPs’ 200Mbps and below plans is anywhere between 200 to 230ms, which is decent, but not great. The caveats are that we don’t know what are the results for the higher-speed plans (both gaming and non-gaming plans), and obviously, the data doesn’t apply if the servers you’re trying to reach reside elsewhere (e.g., ideally, you should get below 100ms for Asia servers). Short of sounding like a broken record, let’s just stress once more that we’ve a lot of helpful members in the forum.

Conclusion

Before fiber broadband, most of us are either on an ADSL or a cable connection, and are contracted to one of the big three ISPs. So naturally, when it’s time to upgrade, the path of least friction is to first look at what our current ISP is offering, and stay with it to minimize disruptions to existing services. For example, if you’re hooked on MioTV or your whole family is contracted to SingTel Mobile, you’re likely to be attracted to SingTel’s fiber entertainment bundle plans, which comes with over 50 channels on MioTV, handset upgrade and mobile subscription discounts. Similarly, if you like to watch your shows on the go, you may be lured by StarHub’s plans that come with free StarHub TV Lite subscription. We also know of people who went for M1 because they’ve good experiences on M1’s mobile side of things.

Of course, with new players like MyRepublic, SuperInternet, and ViewQwest coming into the residential fiber broadband space, we now have more choices. The old adage "Buy only what you need" is still very much applicable here, though it’s often easier said than done, especially when it comes to a brand new technology like fiber (the kaleidoscope of deals doesn’t help too). For some consumers, what they want is the cheapest price plan; and if they’re willing to tolerate some hiccups along the way (they may not even notice things like the Internet is crawling today), who are we to say that they’re wrong? They got what they wanted, and are happy, so that’s that.

But sometimes, price isn’t everything, which is why we went to great lengths to discuss the finer points of fiber broadband, like real-world speeds, the pros and cons of traffic shaping, and the merits of gaming-oriented plans. Hopefully, by understanding them and matching them with your own needs, you would be able to make a more informed buying decision. For example, are you a Netflix, Hulu, or ITV addict? If so, it may be better to go with either MyRepublic or ViewQwest who offer DNS routing add-on services (Teleport and Freedom VPN respectively) that allow you to easily get to such overseas content. Conversely, such services are useless to you if you only watch YouTube, and you’re better off signing up for a plan that gives you a free laptop. Last but not least, things like network reliability and quality of after-sales support can't be gleaned from the ISPs' websites. To find out what’s happening on the ground, look no further than our Internet Bandwidth & Networking Clinic forum and its Next Generation Broadband Network sub-forum, which are open 24/7.

In the next article, we’ll move on to home networking basics, and some of the dos and don’ts to improve your internet experience, so stay tuned.