Cable Modem speed (Was Re: [aclug-L] ISPs?)

[Todd_Lundstedt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Did any of you go to the Wichita Computer User Group meeting that was held
at MMC?  Yes, it was a lot of marketing jazz, and all, but here is what I
remember...

Currently (at least current to the time of that meeting), MMC is providing
area schools with cablemodem access to the Internet and it goes through a
single T1 connection (at times, already dog slow).  When they roll out CM
access for the masses, they will be connecting to the RoadRunner network.
We (MMC here in Wichita) will connect to the RR Regional Network Operations
Center (NOC) in KC via two T3s (speed and redundancy).  The KC NOC will
connect to the RR network via OC3 (or was it OC12.. anyway...).  If you are
talking to another RR cablemodem, you will never hit the Internet, you will
always stay on their intranet.  If you need to access something on the
Internet, it will jump out onto the Internet at the KC NOC via a T3 (I
think).  If that T3 fails, we simply travel to the next NOC and hop off
onto the Internet there.

There is some head-end caching that will occur for some web content, and
the head-end will contain email (and probably newsgroups).  I am not sure
if the headend is going to be in KC or Wichita.  I assume equipment in
Wichita will contain email/webserver space.

There will be 177 Nodes throughout Wichita.  Each node has a fiber feed
back to MMC (with some dark fiber, for growth).  Each node can supply cable
signals to upto 500 homes, (of course, not all 500 homes have cable, and
even fewer will have cablemodems).  Each node will share (to _upto_ 500
homes per node) 27 or 40 Mbps downstream speed, depending on the method
they (RR) decide to use.  Each node will share to those same homes 384Kbps
to 2.5Mbps upstream speed, again depending on how they decide to do it.

So... if all of the above is true (or close to true), it would be very
similar to sharing a 10BT downstream connection at work with no more than
500 people in your collision domain.  (10BT, because the cablemodem
connects to your computer via an Ethernet card, unless you get the internal
PCI cablemodem.  Then, you get the full 27-40Mbps shared speed.)  And, as
most people (AKA, geeks) know, most network traffic is ... request (small
packet), return/display (large packets), long pause while reading.
However, we geeks will be downloading large files (CDs from the distro of
your choice, etc...).  Hopefully, we geeks will not be clustered into one
area of town and be unlucky enough to be all on the same node.

The also mentioned, they will have the ability to split a node up into two
(or more) nodes, if bandwidth on the node requires it - remember, there is
dark fiber at each node, for growth.

Questions, comments (keep them nice), suggestions (nothing involving body
parts, please), etc... are welcome.

Todd.



>Okay, what I meant was the total outgoing capacity of Wichita for MM Cable
>is a T1's worth, whereas the TOTAL incoming capacity allowed would be
>greater than that. In other words, they would limit outgoing even more
than
>incoming, but I can't imagine even THEY would expect to support an entire
>city the size of Wichita with only a measly T1. I don't remember for sure,
>and I'm not even sure where I read it, so take what I was saying with a
>grain of salt.
blah blah blah...

>john
>
>>Unless I'm unaware of something, T1's are bidirectional... If they have
an
>>outgoing T1, what sort of incoming connection would they have?  Perhaps a
>>satelite feed of somesort?
>>
>>
>>On Wed, 17 Mar 1999, John Reinke wrote:
>>
>>> I believe that all of Wichita would be sharing one *outgoing* T1, but
yes,
>>> it doesn't sound like it will be nearly as fast as they want you to
>>> believe. Hype is everything. I'm sure they plan an NT bottleneck on top
of
>>> everything else, too. The only time I went to their web site, I got a
few
>>> Frontpage errors...
>>>
blah blah...

>>> >> I'm awaiting Cablevision's starting their services.. For what?  $25
a
>>> >> month?
>>> >
>>> >Cablevision will be charging, I believe, $40/month.  But keep in
mind...
>>> >they will be limiting bandwidth to 128k per person...  Not to mention
the
>>> >fact that the entire city of Wichita will be fed by a single T1
>>> >(1.54mbits).  Things will be DOG SSSSLLLLOOOOWWWW.  No more than 12
people
>>> >in the entire city will be able to get 128k throughput simultaneously.
If
>>> >you have 100 doing a file transfer at the same time, each person gets
only
>>> >15.4kbps (barely faster than a 14.4 modem).






---
This is the Air Capital Linux Users Group discussion list.  If you
want to unsubscribe, send the word "unsubscribe" to
aclug-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx.  If you want to post to the list, send your
message to aclug-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx.