[Starlink] insanely great waveform result for starlink

Fri Jan 13 18:44:12 EST 2023

I am forced to conclude that waveform's upload test is broken in some cases
and has been for some time. All the joy many have been feeling about their
uplink speeds has to be cast away. Felt good, though, didn't it?

There is a *slight* possibility that there is some fq in the starlink
network on tcp port 433. The first showing normal rtt growth and loss for
cubic, the second, a low rate flow that is holding the line... but I didn't
check to see if these were sequential or parallel.

The last is a cwnd plot, clearly showing the cubic sawtooth on the upload.

It's weirdly nice to be able to follow a port 433 stream, see the tls
handshake put the website en'clair, and the rest go dark, and still trace
the behaviors.

we're so going to lose this analytical ability with quic. I'm enjoying it
while we still can.

On Fri, Jan 13, 2023 at 2:10 PM Jonathan Bennett via Starlink <
starlink at lists.bufferbloat.net> wrote:

> The irtt run finished a few seconds before the flent run, but here are the
> results:
>
>
> https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FKve13ssUMW1LLWOXLM2931Yx6uMHw8K/view?usp=share_link
>
> https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZXd64A0pfUedLr3FyhDNTHA7vxv8S2Gk/view?usp=share_link
>
> https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rx64UPQHHz3IMNiJtb1oFqtqw2DvhvEE/view?usp=share_link
>
>
> [image: image.png]
> [image: image.png]
>
>
> Jonathan Bennett
> Hackaday.com
>
>
> On Fri, Jan 13, 2023 at 3:30 PM Nathan Owens via Starlink <
> starlink at lists.bufferbloat.net> wrote:
>
>> Here's Luis's run -- the top line below the edge of the graph is 200ms
>> [image: Screenshot 2023-01-13 at 1.30.03 PM.png]
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Jan 13, 2023 at 1:25 PM Luis A. Cornejo <luis.a.cornejo at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Dave,
>>>
>>> Here is a run the way I think you wanted it.
>>>
>>> irtt running for 5 min to your dallas server, followed by a waveform
>>> test, then a few seconds of inactivity, cloudflare test, a few more secs of
>>> nothing, flent test to dallas. Packet capture is currently uploading (will
>>> be done in 20 min or so), irtt JSON also in there (.zip file):
>>>
>>>
>>> https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1FLWqrzNcM8aK-ZXQywNkZGFR81Fnzn-F?usp=share_link
>>>
>>> -Luis
>>>
>>> On Fri, Jan 13, 2023 at 2:50 PM Dave Taht via Starlink <
>>> starlink at lists.bufferbloat.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Fri, Jan 13, 2023 at 12:30 PM Nathan Owens <nathan at nathan.io> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Here's the data visualization for Johnathan's Data
>>>>>
>>>>> [image: Screenshot 2023-01-13 at 12.29.15 PM.png]
>>>>>
>>>>> You can see the path change at :12, :27, :42, :57 after the minute.
>>>>> Some paths are clearly busier than others with increased loss, latency, and
>>>>> jitter.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I am so glad to see loss and bounded delay here. Also a bit of rigor
>>>> regarding what traffic was active locally vs on the path would be nice,
>>>> although it seems to line up with the known 15s starlink switchover thing
>>>> (need a name for this), in this case, doing a few speedtests
>>>> while that irtt is running would show the impact(s) of whatever else
>>>> they are up to.
>>>>
>>>> It would also be my hope that the loss distribution in the middle
>>>> portion of this data is good, not bursty, but we don't have a tool to take
>>>> apart that. (I am so hopeless at json)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Fri, Jan 13, 2023 at 10:09 AM Nathan Owens <nathan at nathan.io>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> I’ll run my visualization code on this result this afternoon and
>>>>>> report back!
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Fri, Jan 13, 2023 at 9:41 AM Jonathan Bennett via Starlink <
>>>>>> starlink at lists.bufferbloat.net> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> The irtt command, run with normal, light usage:
>>>>>>> https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SiVCiUYnx7nDTxIVOY5w-z20S2O059rA/view?usp=share_link
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Jonathan Bennett
>>>>>>> Hackaday.com
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Fri, Jan 13, 2023 at 11:26 AM Dave Taht <dave.taht at gmail.com>
>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> packet caps would be nice... all this is very exciting news.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I'd so love for one or more of y'all reporting such great uplink
>>>>>>>> results nowadays to duplicate and re-plot the original irtt tests we
>>>>>>>> did:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> irtt client -i3ms -d300s myclosestservertoyou.starlink.taht.net -o
>>>>>>>> whatever.json
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> They MUST have changed their scheduling to get such amazing uplink
>>>>>>>> results, in addition to better queue management.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> (for the record, my servers are de, london, fremont, sydney, dallas,
>>>>>>>> newark, atlanta, singapore, mumbai)
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> There's an R and gnuplot script for plotting that output around here
>>>>>>>> somewhere (I have largely personally put down the starlink project,
>>>>>>>> loaning out mine) - that went by on this list... I should have
>>>>>>>> written
>>>>>>>> a blog entry so I can find that stuff again.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On Fri, Jan 13, 2023 at 9:02 AM Jonathan Bennett via Starlink
>>>>>>>> <starlink at lists.bufferbloat.net> wrote:
>>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>>> > On Fri, Jan 13, 2023 at 6:28 AM Ulrich Speidel via Starlink <
>>>>>>>> starlink at lists.bufferbloat.net> wrote:
>>>>>>>> >>
>>>>>>>> >> On 13/01/2023 6:13 pm, Ulrich Speidel wrote:
>>>>>>>> >> >
>>>>>>>> >> > From Auckland, New Zealand, using a roaming subscription, it
>>>>>>>> puts me
>>>>>>>> >> > in touch with a server 2000 km away. OK then:
>>>>>>>> >> >
>>>>>>>> >> >
>>>>>>>> >> > IP address: nix six.
>>>>>>>> >> >
>>>>>>>> >> > My thoughts shall follow later.
>>>>>>>> >>
>>>>>>>> >> OK, so here we go.
>>>>>>>> >>
>>>>>>>> >> I'm always a bit skeptical when it comes to speed tests -
>>>>>>>> they're really
>>>>>>>> >> laden with so many caveats that it's not funny. I took our new
>>>>>>>> work
>>>>>>>> >> Starlink kit home in December to give it a try and the other day
>>>>>>>> finally
>>>>>>>> >> got around to set it up. It's on a roaming subscription because
>>>>>>>> our
>>>>>>>> >> badly built-up campus really isn't ideal in terms of a clear
>>>>>>>> view of the
>>>>>>>> >> sky. Oh - and did I mention that I used the Starlink Ethernet
>>>>>>>> adapter,
>>>>>>>> >> not the WiFi?
>>>>>>>> >>
>>>>>>>> >> Caveat 1: Location, location. I live in a place where the best
>>>>>>>> Starlink
>>>>>>>> >> promises is about 1/3 in terms of data rate you can actually get
>>>>>>>> from
>>>>>>>> >> fibre to the home at under half of Starlink's price. Read: There
>>>>>>>> are few
>>>>>>>> >> Starlink users around. I might be the only one in my suburb.
>>>>>>>> >>
>>>>>>>> >> Caveat 2: Auckland has three Starlink gateways close by:
>>>>>>>> Clevedon (which
>>>>>>>> >> is at a stretch daytrip cycling distance from here), Te Hana and
>>>>>>>> Puwera,
>>>>>>>> >> the most distant of the three and about 130 km away from me as
>>>>>>>> the crow
>>>>>>>> >> flies. Read: My dishy can use any satellite that any of these
>>>>>>>> three can
>>>>>>>> >> see, and then depending on where I put it and how much of the
>>>>>>>> southern
>>>>>>>> >> sky it can see, maybe also the one in Hinds, 840 km away,
>>>>>>>> although that
>>>>>>>> >> is obviously stretching it a bit. Either way, that's plenty of
>>>>>>>> options
>>>>>>>> >> for my bits to travel without needing a lot of handovers. Why?
>>>>>>>> Easy: If
>>>>>>>> >> your nearest teleport is close by, then the set of satellites
>>>>>>>> that the
>>>>>>>> >> teleport can see and the set that you can see is almost the
>>>>>>>> same, so you
>>>>>>>> >> can essentially stick with the same satellite while it's in view
>>>>>>>> for you
>>>>>>>> >> because it'll also be in view for the teleport. Pretty much any
>>>>>>>> bird
>>>>>>>> >> above you will do.
>>>>>>>> >>
>>>>>>>> >> And because I don't get a lot of competition from other users in
>>>>>>>> my area
>>>>>>>> >> vying for one of the few available satellites that can see both
>>>>>>>> us and
>>>>>>>> >> the teleport, this is about as good as it gets at 37S latitude.
>>>>>>>> If I'd
>>>>>>>> >> want it any better, I'd have to move a lot further south.
>>>>>>>> >>
>>>>>>>> >> It'd be interesting to hear from Jonathan what the availability
>>>>>>>> of home
>>>>>>>> >> broadband is like in the Dallas area. I note that it's at a lower
>>>>>>>> >> latitude (33N) than Auckland, but the difference isn't huge. I
>>>>>>>> notice
>>>>>>>> >> two teleports each about 160 km away, which is also not too bad.
>>>>>>>> I also
>>>>>>>> >> note Starlink availability in the area is restricted at the
>>>>>>>> moment -
>>>>>>>> >> oversubscribed? But if Jonathan gets good data rates, then that
>>>>>>>> means
>>>>>>>> >> that competition for bird capacity can't be too bad - for
>>>>>>>> whatever reason.
>>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>>> > I'm in Southwest Oklahoma, but Dallas is the nearby Starlink
>>>>>>>> gateway. In cities, like Dallas, and Lawton where I live, there are good
>>>>>>>> broadband options. But there are also many people that live outside cities,
>>>>>>>> and the options are much worse. The low density userbase in rural Oklahoma
>>>>>>>> and Texas is probably ideal conditions for Starlink.
>>>>>>>> >>
>>>>>>>> >>
>>>>>>>> >> Caveat 3: Backhaul. There isn't just one queue between me and
>>>>>>>> whatever I
>>>>>>>> >> talk to in terms of my communications. Traceroute shows about 10
>>>>>>>> hops
>>>>>>>> >> between me and the University of Auckland via Starlink. That's 10
>>>>>>>> >> queues, not one. Many of them will have cross traffic. So it's a
>>>>>>>> bit
>>>>>>>> >> hard to tell where our packets really get to wait or where they
>>>>>>>> get
>>>>>>>> >> dropped. The insidious bit here is that a lot of them will be
>>>>>>>> between 1
>>>>>>>> >> Gb/s and 10 Gb/s links, and with a bit of cross traffic, they
>>>>>>>> can all
>>>>>>>> >> turn into bottlenecks. This isn't like a narrowband GEO link of
>>>>>>>> a few
>>>>>>>> >> Mb/s where it's obvious where the dominant long latency
>>>>>>>> bottleneck in
>>>>>>>> >> your TCP connection's path is. Read: It's pretty hard to tell
>>>>>>>> whether a
>>>>>>>> >> drop in "speed" is due to a performance issue in the Starlink
>>>>>>>> system or
>>>>>>>> >> somewhere between Starlink's systems and the target system.
>>>>>>>> >>
>>>>>>>> >> I see RTTs here between 20 ms and 250 ms, where the physical
>>>>>>>> latency
>>>>>>>> >> should be under 15 ms. So there's clearly a bit of buffer here
>>>>>>>> along the
>>>>>>>> >> chain that occasionally fills up.
>>>>>>>> >>
>>>>>>>> >> Caveat 4: Handovers. Handover between birds and teleports is
>>>>>>>> inevitably
>>>>>>>> >> associated with a change in RTT and in most cases also available
>>>>>>>> >> bandwidth. Plus your packets now arrive at a new queue on a new
>>>>>>>> >> satellite while your TCP is still trying to respond to whatever
>>>>>>>> it
>>>>>>>> >> thought the queue on the previous bird was doing. Read: Whatever
>>>>>>>> your
>>>>>>>> >> cwnd is immediately after a handover, it's probably not what it
>>>>>>>> should be.
>>>>>>>> >>
>>>>>>>> >> I ran a somewhat hamstrung (sky view restricted) set of four
>>>>>>>> Ookla
>>>>>>>> >> speedtest.net tests each to five local servers. Average upload
>>>>>>>> rate was
>>>>>>>> >> 13 Mb/s, average down 75.5 Mb/s. Upload to the server of the ISP
>>>>>>>> that
>>>>>>>> >> Starlink seems to be buying its local connectivity from (Vocus
>>>>>>>> Group)
>>>>>>>> >> varied between 3.04 and 14.38 Mb/s, download between 23.33 and
>>>>>>>> 52.22
>>>>>>>> >> Mb/s, with RTTs between 37 and 56 ms not correlating well to
>>>>>>>> rates
>>>>>>>> >> observed. In fact, they were the ISP with consistently the worst
>>>>>>>> rates.
>>>>>>>> >>
>>>>>>>> >> Another ISP (MyRepublic) scored between 11.81 and 21.81 Mb/s up
>>>>>>>> and
>>>>>>>> >> between 106.5 and 183.8 Mb/s down, again with RTTs badly
>>>>>>>> correlating
>>>>>>>> >> with rates. Average RTT was the same as for Vocus.
>>>>>>>> >>
>>>>>>>> >> Note the variation though: More or less a factor of two between
>>>>>>>> highest
>>>>>>>> >> and lowest rates for each ISP. Did MyRepublic just get lucky in
>>>>>>>> my
>>>>>>>> >> tests? Or is there something systematic behind this? Way too few
>>>>>>>> tests
>>>>>>>> >> to tell.
>>>>>>>> >>
>>>>>>>> >> What these tests do is establish a ballpark.
>>>>>>>> >>
>>>>>>>> >> I'm currently repeating tests with dish placed on a trestle
>>>>>>>> closer to
>>>>>>>> >> the heavens. This seems to have translated into fewer outages /
>>>>>>>> ping
>>>>>>>> >> losses (around 1/4 of what I had yesterday with dishy on the
>>>>>>>> ground on
>>>>>>>> >> my deck). Still good enough for a lengthy video Skype call with
>>>>>>>> my folks
>>>>>>>> >> in Germany, although they did comment about reduced video
>>>>>>>> quality. But
>>>>>>>> >> maybe that was the lighting or the different background as I
>>>>>>>> wasn't in
>>>>>>>> >> my usual spot with my laptop when I called them.
>>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>>> > Clear view of the sky is king for Starlink reliability. I've got
>>>>>>>> my dishy mounted on the back fence, looking up over an empty field, so it's
>>>>>>>> pretty much best-case scenario here.
>>>>>>>> >>
>>>>>>>> >>
>>>>>>>> >> --
>>>>>>>> >>
>>>>>>>> >> ****************************************************************
>>>>>>>> >> Dr. Ulrich Speidel
>>>>>>>> >>
>>>>>>>> >> School of Computer Science
>>>>>>>> >>
>>>>>>>> >> Room 303S.594 (City Campus)
>>>>>>>> >>
>>>>>>>> >> The University of Auckland
>>>>>>>> >> u.speidel at auckland.ac.nz
>>>>>>>> >> http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~ulrich/
>>>>>>>> >> ****************************************************************
>>>>>>>> >>
>>>>>>>> >>
>>>>>>>> >>
>>>>>>>> >> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>>> >> Starlink mailing list
>>>>>>>> >> Starlink at lists.bufferbloat.net
>>>>>>>> >> https://lists.bufferbloat.net/listinfo/starlink
>>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>>> > _______________________________________________
>>>>>>>> > Starlink mailing list
>>>>>>>> > Starlink at lists.bufferbloat.net
>>>>>>>> > https://lists.bufferbloat.net/listinfo/starlink
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>> This song goes out to all the folk that thought Stadia would work:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dtaht_the-mushroom-song-activity-6981366665607352320-FXtz
>>>>>>>> Dave Täht CEO, TekLibre, LLC
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>> Starlink mailing list
>>>>>>> Starlink at lists.bufferbloat.net
>>>>>>> https://lists.bufferbloat.net/listinfo/starlink
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> This song goes out to all the folk that thought Stadia would work:
>>>>
>>>> https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dtaht_the-mushroom-song-activity-6981366665607352320-FXtz
>>>> Dave Täht CEO, TekLibre, LLC
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Starlink mailing list
>>>> Starlink at lists.bufferbloat.net
>>>> https://lists.bufferbloat.net/listinfo/starlink
>>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>> Starlink mailing list
>> Starlink at lists.bufferbloat.net
>> https://lists.bufferbloat.net/listinfo/starlink
>>
> _______________________________________________
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>

-- 
This song goes out to all the folk that thought Stadia would work:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dtaht_the-mushroom-song-activity-6981366665607352320-FXtz
Dave Täht CEO, TekLibre, LLC
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