Bravo Policy re: Internet Performance MAY 6, 2016
When you ask me to perform tasks, I expect a reasonable Internet
connection. When that is not available, I'd have to decline/defer work.
Alternatively, you'd have to accept extraordinary costs and risks, in
order for me to press on.
Remote Admin requires Reasonable Internet Connection
- 90% of the time <1/4 sec latency (NORMAL)
- 5% of the time <3 sec latency (OK)
- 3% of the time <7 sec latency (UNPRODUCTIVE)
- 1% rare occasions 7s ~ 30s lag (TOLERABLE but COSTLY & RISKY)
- 0.5% incidence > 30s lag (UNUSABLE)
- 0.5% momentary outage requiring retry, success within minutes (DOWN)
- 0.5% extended outage > 1 hour (DOWN)
This is the metric I use to quantify the severity
level in objective terms. I consider this in conjunction with the
frequency of occurrence, and arrive at my assessment.
The "Normal" status above can be achieved by
- most basic default plan @$30/month + tax
- disable uncontrolled auto-update
- refrain from bit-torrent, etc.
- defer bulk upload (incl. email sending)
- minimal QoS* at perimeter router
Comments
- There are 3 parameters in Internet performance: transfer rate, latency, jitter
- for this context: latency is critical, transfer rate is secondary, jitter is irrelevant
- there could be major discreprancy between rated speed & sustained transfer rate
- It's typically your outbound bandwidth that is the bottleneck
- outbound saturation could paralyze inbound transfer
- the actual performance (throughput) of your ISP line fluctuates
drastically from day to day, and hour to hour
- the average small biz has far worse inet performance than the average household, due to:
- higher sharing ratio
- demanding pattern (and direction) of usage
- lack of coordination
*QoS: Quality of Service, aka Packet Prioritization, aka Traffic
Shaping--a feature available on commercial class routers