Netflix Publishes ISP Performance

 

Netflix, the provider of OTT video streaming services, was recently the cause for the conflict between Level3 and Comcast (here), over inter-carrier settlement charges while putting Net Neutrality regulation into a reality test.

Now, in a recent blog port by Ken Florance (picture), Director of Content Delivery, the provider publishes performance data for US and Canadian ISPs.

See "Netflix Performance on Top ISP Networks" - here.

The blog has charts (see the US one below - Comcast is 2nd best) showing throughput over time. However, an equally important index, jitter, is not shown. While throughput may affect the video quality delivered (see below) to the subscriber, jitter may affect the number of times the subscriber will see the notorious  "buffering" phenomena and wait for content. See "BE (UK): World Cup Without Buffering" (here).

A recent study from Sandvine discovered that "In the United States, Netflix represents more than 20 percent of downstream traffic during peak times and is heaviest between 8-10 p.m" (here). So averaging throughput over a whole day will not tell you what happens at prime-time when everybody is watching.

"Currently, our top HD streams are about 4800 kilobits per second. Clients may switch through a number of bitrates as they ramp up to the highest stream, or shift down from the highest stream if they cannot sustain play at that rate due to throughput constraints. No client would sustain a 4800 stream from start to finish (there would at least be a few smaller streams averaged in for startup) but the higher the sustained average, the greater the throughput the client can achieve, and the greater the image quality over the duration of the play"