roundtable: Re: feast-or-famine, FYI from Edupage

roundtable: Re: feast-or-famine, FYI from Edupage

Re: feast-or-famine, FYI from Edupage

James Love (love@cptech.org)
Fri, 01 Aug 1997 10:40:05 -0400 

Message-Id: <33E1F545.F99AEE77@cptech.org>
Date: Fri, 01 Aug 1997 10:40:05 -0400
From: James Love <love@cptech.org>
To: roundtable@cni.org
Subject: Re: feast-or-famine, FYI from Edupage


Curtiss Priest <cpriest@juno.com> wrote:
> 
> RESEARCHERS ADVOCATE INTERNET USE CHARGE
> 
> Researchers at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center conducted tests that
> showed the average packet of digital data took 189 milliseconds to travel
> from Stanford University to Cranfield University in Great Britain and
> then back to Stanford.  They then developed a statistical model of
> Internet traffic showing that when users are encouraged by fast
> response times, they ramp up their Internet activities, thus creating
> the "storms," or bursts of congestion, that continually plague the Net.
> When the response time slows to a crawl, users back off, and eventually
> things get back to normal.  To avoid the feast-or-famine scenario, the
> researchers advocate charging all users according to the amount of
> bandwidth they use.  (Chronicle of Higher Education 1 Aug 97)


...... Charging for usage has nothing to do with Congestion, unless the
charges are related to congestion.  FOR EXAMPLE, until recently, AOL had
usage charges, AND IT HAD CONGESTION PROBLEMS, when everyone tried to
use the network at the same time.  I used to use DRI's pricey data
network, which had a $60 per HOUR usage charge.  Guess what, it was
congested as all hell at predictable times of the day.  

    If you want to charge for congestion, not usage, show how this can
be done.  But don't make assertions that usage pricing will reduce
congestion, if it will simply reduce overall usage, without doing
anything about the the congestion problems that happen when everyone is
on the network at the same time.


    Jamie


-- 
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James Love | Center for Study of Responsive Law
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