5 ms·

> they aren't creating bits, storing bits to ensure supply, or depleting their supply of bits by transmitting them to you Their value proposition is not "bits"

by _greim_ 12y ago

> they aren't creating bits, storing bits to ensure supply, or depleting their supply of bits by transmitting them to you Their value proposition is not "bits" per se, but capacity, which they do in fact deplete when they transmit bits to you.

nitrogen 12y ago
Their value proposition is not "bits" per se, but capacity, which they do in fact deplete when they transmit bits to you. Capacity in this case is a rate, not a quantity. The same capacity is required to deliver a web page at 50mbits/s as to deliver video at 50mbits/s.
- saurik 12y ago
  A video has a minimum viable rate (past which point it will no longer be real time), while a web page only sort of does. A video is a sustained download, while a web page is relatively instantaneous. If a thousand people are clicking links and browsing web pages even fairly quickly, they will likely not notice each other's usage of the network. The same cannot be said of a thousand people streaming a video over the same network. To model this another way: you are muddling together the capacity of something with its speed. These are highly related ideas, as past the latency of a link the bandwidth does manage to model the speed a single user can obtain over the connection. However, users are sharing that speed over a specific duration: it absolutely matters how much data is being transferred. The web page is simply fewer bits than a video, so more of them can be downloaded over the same capacity link per unit time. To make that time requirement more concrete: a thousand people who need to download a minute of video within the next minute requires more capacity than a thousand people downloading a minute of video who are willing to wait up to two minutes to watch it, both of which require more bandwidth than a thousand people downloading a minute of video who just need it to arrive before tomorrow. (Putting this all together, you hopefully see how flow control becomes relevant: peak load is informed by peak capacity, which causes the speed per user to automatically slow down as the bandwidth capacity is reached. But this is more of an advanced thought that is probably not needed to appreciate that a thousand people streaming video need larger pipes than a thousand people working at some email: that is hopefully intuitive.)
- _greim_ 12y ago
  If you're the sole user of the internet, then this is true.

by _greim_ 12y ago

nitrogen 12y ago

Their value proposition is not "bits" per se, but capacity, which they do in fact deplete when they transmit bits to you. Capacity in this case is a rate, not a quantity. The same capacity is required to deliver a web page at 50mbits/s as to deliver video at 50mbits/s.

saurik 12y ago
A video has a minimum viable rate (past which point it will no longer be real time), while a web page only sort of does. A video is a sustained download, while a web page is relatively instantaneous. If a thousand people are clicking links and browsing web pages even fairly quickly, they will likely not notice each other's usage of the network. The same cannot be said of a thousand people streaming a video over the same network. To model this another way: you are muddling together the capacity of something with its speed. These are highly related ideas, as past the latency of a link the bandwidth does manage to model the speed a single user can obtain over the connection. However, users are sharing that speed over a specific duration: it absolutely matters how much data is being transferred. The web page is simply fewer bits than a video, so more of them can be downloaded over the same capacity link per unit time. To make that time requirement more concrete: a thousand people who need to download a minute of video within the next minute requires more capacity than a thousand people downloading a minute of video who are willing to wait up to two minutes to watch it, both of which require more bandwidth than a thousand people downloading a minute of video who just need it to arrive before tomorrow. (Putting this all together, you hopefully see how flow control becomes relevant: peak load is informed by peak capacity, which causes the speed per user to automatically slow down as the bandwidth capacity is reached. But this is more of an advanced thought that is probably not needed to appreciate that a thousand people streaming video need larger pipes than a thousand people working at some email: that is hopefully intuitive.)
_greim_ 12y ago
If you're the sole user of the internet, then this is true.