The Effect of ISP Traffic Shaping on User-Perceived Performances in Broadband Shared Access Networks

TL;DR

This study examines how ISP traffic shaping impacts end-user perceived performance in broadband shared access networks, focusing on token bucket parameters and their effects on HTTP, FTP, and streaming video quality.

Contribution

It introduces a traffic model based on user behaviors and applies a multivariate non-inferiority test to evaluate shaping effects on user-perceived performance.

Findings

Larger token buckets improve user-perceived performance.

Loose burst control with large token buckets does not harm performance with multiple subscribers.

Very large token buckets can negatively affect conformant subscribers due to non-conformant traffic.

Abstract

Recent studies on the practice of shaping subscribers' traffic by ISPs give a new insight into the actual performance of broadband access networks at a packet level. Unlike metro and backbone networks, however, access networks directly interface with end-users, so it is important to base the study and design of access networks on the behaviors of and the actual performance perceived by end-users. In this paper we study the effect of ISP traffic shaping using traffic models based on user behaviors and application/session-layer metrics providing quantifiable measures of user-perceived performance for HTTP, FTP, and streaming video traffic. To compare the user-perceived performance of shaped traffic flows with those of unshaped ones in an integrated way, we use a multivariate non-inferiority testing procedure. We first investigate the effect of the token generation rate and the token bucket size of a token bucket filter on user-perceived performance at a subscriber level with a single subscriber. Then we investigate their effect at an access level where shaped traffic flows from multiple subscribers interact with one another in a common shared access network. The simulation results show that for a given token generation rate, a larger token bucket provides better user-perceived performance at both subscriber and access levels. It is also shown that the loose burst control resulting from the large token bucket --- up to 100 MB for access line rate of 100 Mbit/s --- does not negatively affect user-perceived performance with multiple subscribers even in the presence of non-conformant subscribers; with a much larger token bucket, however, the negative effect of non-conformant subscribers on the user-perceived performance of conformant subscribers becomes clearly visible because the impact of token bucket size and that of token generation rate are virtually indistinguishable in this case.