Comcast defends P2P management to FCC

Comcast has strongly defended its traffic management practices to the FCC, declaring they are necessary to ensure service such as VoIP are not degraded. The FCC hearing on Comcast's P2P practices is seminal for the future of advanced IP communications.

In its lengthy submission, Comcast gives a clear view of how it manages congestion in what amounts to a strong and logical defense of its current practices. Comcast admits to resetting TCP packets when P2P traffic reaches congestion levels. Unlike telco DSL, cable companies use a shared bandwidth architecture which can be clogged by as few as 15 bit torrent sessions in a typical urban node of around 450 homes. This, Comcast says, is is done by creating packets which appear to come from the originating computer to say there is an error and to start again.

But it is this forging or spoofing that has upset the net neutrality/free-internet supporters and of course Vuze, the original complainant. Vuze uses P2P to distribute video content and objected to Comcast degrading the P2P connections on its network. This started a firestorm of complaints that prompted the FCC to investigate.

Determining what is reasonable traffic management is now the central issue of what promises to be an all-important FCC finding for the management of the Internet and the viability of advanced IP communication services. For the cable providers, it is a critical competitive issue as they seek to roll out triple-play offerings. As rich online media demand explodes, the core architecture of cable systems means providers will have to manage bandwidth within nodes to ensure quality of service of their offerings.

It is also a big issue for the emerging P2P industry which has moved from being the dark facilitator of copyright pirates to a legitimate and efficient network management tool.

For more:
- Comcast P2P FCC submission
[1]- Comcast: we block only excessive traffic Article [2]
- EFF study confirms Comcast's Bit Torrent interference Article [3]

Related articles:
NBC to use P2P to deliver video Report [4]
FCC to investigate Comcast Report [5]