FTTP Throughput

[u000533]

Hi, I Have 900Mbps FF and am seeing really poor performance, to give some detail.

Speed tests results are fine, I'm talking about data throughput. I recently had to update CoD, a 24Gb download, and I was getting, as I always do, at best 160Mbps down to 60Mbps. I get the same sort of performance when downloading from any of the game servers - Steam, Epic, Battlenet etc

This has been constant since it was installed last year. The other night I paused the download and created a hotspot off my phone, with a poor signal, and instantly got a steady 210Mbps, so that shows the CoD servers aren't the issue and I finally get to my question

- is my local node overloaded and what can I do about it?

In my previous house I had 500Mbps FF and had exactly the same sort of throughput so currently can't see any point in paying for 900Mbps when I don't get anywhere near that in actual use. Its also really poor that my phone should be outperforming 900Mbps FF.

FYI - PC is connected directly to my Netgear router, don't use the BT one, with cat5e cable that's been tested. Have done all the normal reboots, resets etc.

regards

[Keith_Beddoe]

@u000533 

FTTP is a contended service, up to 32 users can be sharing the 2.5Gb backhaul, so you can never expect the full speed all the time, you may get 900mb when there are fewer people using it. I expect that you are sharing the backhaul with many users. If everyone was using it fully, you may only get 78mbs. Its called statistical multiplexing, which relies on the fact that all users are not utilising their connection fully, all of the time.

BT quote up to 900mb, so you are likely to get much less than that during peak times.

Speed tests pass very little data, so normally give a much higher speed.

[licquorice]

Have you considered that the game servers could be the slowest link in the chain.

[u000533]

The phone test showed its not the game servers as I got 210Mbps from the hotspot then back to 160ish on fibre.

[u000533]

So what happens if all 32 users have 900mbps the node will be massively overloaded and we'll all have poor performance. I don't expect to get a constant 900 but do expect way more than 160 and with so many people working from home there aren't quiet periods.

So without the node to user ratio being drop bt fftp will always have poor performance unless you stay up all night.

I assume as I can't get the service I expect I can change to a cheaper option as I might as well have 500mbps or slower and will see the same throughput. Particularly as the speed guarantee on 900mbps is 700mbps which I'm nowhere near. 

Also the backhaul won't have the bandwidth to support the stay fast guarantee with that user ratio. Four people on 900mbps and its maxed.

[licquorice]

It's not just BT, it's every ISP that will have the same contention ratio, it's how the internet works and why residential service is cheap.

[iniltous]

The max OR connect to a splitter is 30 ( 32 is the splitter maximum but policy is 30 ) not every CBT port provided is likely to have a customer using it , so unless on a ‘new site’  that has no alternatives to OR FTTP the actual number on a splitter  is likely to be way less , OR currently have about a 30% take up, so maybe 10 users per splitter , plus the majority don’t take 900Mb but slower profiles , and the chances of those ‘on line ‘ at any one time all and doing something intensive, rather than browsing / Netflix that may be consuming less than 30-100Mb , is slim ,  that’s why there is a 700Mb minimum speed guarantee on 900Mb …..the 2.4Gb will be plenty ,you would have to be incredibly unlucky to have any consistent congestion.

If you suspect PON congestion, try at a time when there won’t be much activity, late evening or early morning .

Although you have tried somethings to ‘ isolate’ the problem , the most obvious thing to do ( that you haven’t apparently tried ) is use the BT router , without doing that , you haven’t really proved anything , your third party router may great , but even great routers can be mis configured or faulty 

[mikemod]

I had similar issues and then ran a program called "TCP Optimizer" picked the top speed and optimal option saved the settings and restarted machine.

I'm using pfsense on N100 hardware as my router.

I was downloading from the EA Servers the other day and it was maxing out my 900Mb line for the whole 52GB download.

Just started another one

[36ULW]

Openreach do max out Splitters now, have done for some time.

[Paul608085]

How is this 2.5Gb backhaul bandwidth contention managed across the connected customers?

For example if two customers, one with a 500Mbps package and the other on 900, during very busy periods will the customer on the higher speed product still get approx double the throughput speed compared to the customer on the slower speed?

Or, is the 2.5Gb distributed equally across all of the connected customers, regardless of the speed of their package contract?