[Bloat] Benefits of Asymmetric links

[Rich Brown <richb.hanover@gmail.com>]

Hi folks,

Just to inject a touch of reality into the discussion...

> On Dec 3, 2017, at 10:44 PM, bloat-request@lists.bufferbloat.net wrote:
> 
>> I can buy 300/10 megabit/s access from my cable provider.
> 
> Don't!

It would be wonderful to get a fast, symmetric link from my ISP, but here's the situation for my town in the northeast US:

- I currently subscribe to 7mbps/768kbps DSL from Fairpoint 

- Fairpoint can provide up to 25/1 mbps DSL.

- There is one Wireless ISP, who can give 4 mbps service (but it is symmetric!) Their service is spotty - it's pretty hilly here.

- Cell reception is also spotty - there's one bar on the town common (in the center of town) - you can't reliably make phone calls.

- Comcast refuses to serve the town common with cable TV/internet, let alone my house which is 1.5 miles away.

- There's a committee working to see if we could provide fiber connections to people in town, but no details have been finalized, and would not happen 'til 2019, if it did.

- This is symptomatic of the internet conditions for a huge number of folks in the US who aren't in heavily populated areas. I won't rant about the causes (you can guess my thoughts about monopoly providers) but this is the reality on the ground here. 

My conclusion: an asymmetric link is far better than no link, so I'm glad that that people are thinking about ack filtering.

Best,

Rich