Acceptable packet loss on WAN

I have two separate pfSense site deployments - one with ADSL2 (76Mb) and the other with FTTC (300Mb).

After setting up BQM on them I've noticed that dropped packets hit as high as 20% when the lines are fully saturated with traffic.

ADSL2:
https://imgur.com/weC7DFi.png

FTTC:
https://imgur.com/1y0XgRk.png

Both lines are with Zen. How normal is this?

btw. thanks for BQM - it's such a great tool 👍

dropping ICMP when link is saturated is normal. ICMP is fragile deliberately.

The dropped packets counted and graphed are all ping packets, containing nothing else.

If you are saturating your line with data, which would you prefer to be dropped by your router? A ping packet or a data packet?

As an aside ...

I have two separate pfSense site deployments - one with ADSL2 (76Mb) and the other with FTTC (300Mb).

The 76Mb will be FTTC, the 300Mb one FTTP.

It�s just pedantry, but worth pointing out to save any confusion for other readers, and possibly yourself.

LOL

As a frequent pedant myself, I completely missed that. Reading only the numbers.

D�oh!

Oops, thanks should clarify my 300Mbps line is G.Fast not fibre optic so that'd make it FTTdp (Fibre To The distribution point) it seems. https://www.increasebroadbandspeed.co.uk/2015/what-i...

The link you give defines something that was considered and ruled out. Openreach are not deploying FTTdp. This is what it is doing, (from your link):-

More recently, it is understood that there is increasing interest in deploying G.fast in existing fibre street cabinets, to minimise investment costs.

By "in existing street cabinets", which cannot be done as there is insufficient room or cooling, it is done by bolting a G.Fast cabinet to the side of the phone cabinet (PCP).

Your line is on G.Fast.

Edited by RobertoS (Sat 02-Nov-19 20:34:55)

Thanks, so a VDSL connection is FTTC? My G.Fast connection is over the existing BT copper line. What would it be considered? Not FTTP surely?

Edited by deleted (Mon 04-Nov-19 09:41:31)

You are thinking of it, or maybe I should say comparing things, in a slightly incorrect way. That�s an easy mistake to make .

Think of the types of DSL we talk about most. ADSL used certain frequencies and gives up to 8Mbps, depending on distance. ADSL2+ uses different and more frequencies and gives up to 24Mbps.

VDSL2 which is what we get from an FTTC cabinet, (the DSLAM in the cabinet converts fibre optic signals to and from VDSL2), goes even further with more frequencies, giving us up to 80Mbps. The technology can give more but this is what Openreach provide using it.

G.Fast is simply an even higher level than VDSL2. Giving far higher speeds but degrading dramatically over distance. Which is why Openreach only offer in on lines that get nearly the full 80Mbps sync speed on VDSL2.

It�s still delivered as fibre to the cabinet, except this is a small cabinet bolted onto the phone cabinet which because of that layout is called a pod. It isn�t a standalone cabinet. The signal from it still comes over your copper telephone line.

FTTP is Fibre To The Premises. At no point does it use your copper phone line. It is a direct fibre optic line between you and the exchange, via a load of intermediate connectors. There are no cabinets involved.

For administrative reasons cabinet areas are still sometimes used to describe where FTTP is available, but that is discouraged as a fibre distribution point can cover parts of several cab areas, and a cab area can be supplied from several such fibre DPs outside its copper area.

Does that help ?

Edited by RobertoS (Mon 04-Nov-19 11:34:14)