[Bloat] Skype

[Alex Burr]

I have noticed delays - although I don't think multiple seconds - but I think that it may be skype trying to make the best of a bad connection. I don't have any knowledge of the internals of the skype client, but I suspect that they take the view that delayed audio is better than incomprehensible audio - I think I have even heard it actually repeating the last bit of audio before a glitch, to give you a better chance to understand the next bit, and presumably catching up when the opportunity arises. 

So, an experiment to rule out skype might need to use not just a de-bloated path, but one with known packet loss.


Alex



----- Original Message -----
> From: Michael Welzl <michawe at ifi.uio.no>
> To: bloat <bloat at lists.bufferbloat.NET>
> Cc: 
> Sent: Sunday, November 18, 2012 2:57 PM
> Subject: [Bloat] Skype
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I have repeatedly noticed that Skype sometimes, in a long conversation involving 
> video, can create massive audio delays (in the order of multiple seconds). This 
> has happened to me in a conversation from a hotel room in the US to my home in 
> Oslo (where, apologies, I haven't yet looked into de-bloating my modem and 
> access point), and from my office in Oslo to someone else's office in the 
> US.
> 
> I'm wondering: was that always due to bloated equipment along the path 
> (including the end hosts), or does Skype poorly handle its internal buffers?
> 
> Any experiences? I suppose the way to find out is to run Skype over a verifiably 
> de-bloated path. If, then, the problem never occurs, the fault is with the 
> equipment and not with Skype (and vice versa).
> 
> Cheers,
> Michael
> 
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