Zen Traffic Pioritisation

I run a village broadband system which supplies 12 houses. The feed is by telephone line from the exchange at the next village, Brandsby (MYBBY).

At the moment I use Zen Office but with the new download limits I could move to Zen Pro, however I would then lose Traffic Pioritisation. As BT is the only supplier at the exchange would the village system notice any difference in performance.

Thanks

Hard to say, but with 12 people off the system, the chances are that usage will be increasing anyway, so stay where you are.

What is the upstream connection speed now? I expect 832kbps, so what would it be on Pro? 832 or 448? It could be relevant with 12 users, as filling the upstream could slow the downstream.

Pro should be 832 still

Thanks for the replies.

Usage isn't a problem, at the moment we use about 90gb/month, way under the Zen Pro new limit of 200gb.

I just like to keep the costs as low as possible, without affecting the service, so i can undercut the competition!!!!!!

http://support.zen.co.uk/kb/KnowledgebaseArticle.asp...

"IPStream Max is used to provide Zen 8000 Pro, Active and Lite

IPStream Max Premium is used to provide Zen Office 8000 and Zen Office 8000 Max"

so Pro would be 448 upstream / lower priority if its not WBC.

In my experience the Premium of Max Premium is significant in terms of performance at busy times on small exchanges.

Doh - brain got confused by the 21CN WBC spees on their product pages.

Unless i am misunderstanding, according to the Zen website Office and Pro are both 1mb upload.
the only difference is Traffic Pioritisation

http://www.zen.co.uk/business/broadband/business-bro...

The 1Mbps upload refers to the 80% of lines where 21CN WBC is available.

On older 20CN IPStream lines, then 448 is the standard, and 832 is the priority version.

As the others seem to have agreed since I raised the question, Pro is probably only 448kbps upload. The easiest thing to do is to ask Zen.

Even at 448kbps it isn't necessarily a killer point. It depends how much uploading you do, bearing in mind some of the things you listed may upload as well. Desktop iPlayer used to, I don't know if it still does. The streaming iPlayer doesn't.

As well as that, everything that comes down generates an ACK(nowledgment) requesting the next chunk, or a re-transmit request for any uncorrectable errors.

People doing mammoth film downloads for instance, with hundreds of streams, can find they saturate the upstream with ACKs, so the download has to slow down and things start queuing. If they reduce the number of streams, the upstream can cope, and they get faster downloads.

This isn't quite what you intend to do, but I expect you see the principle. You can fill the upstream and degrade the downstream as a result.

But it's an "If". It could be fine on 448kbps.

Edited by RobertoS (Wed 28-Mar-12 17:34:41)

does your product have 8000 in its name ?

http://support.zen.co.uk/kb/KnowledgebaseArticle.asp...

Yes it is Zen Office 8000.

So does the priority still work if BT is the only supplier from the exchange?

So does the priority still work if BT is the only supplier from the exchange?

Indeed it does. Hence the higher minimum speeds on the zen page I linked too.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Desktop iPlayer used to, I don't know if it still does.

It doesn't.

Thanks for the info, I'll stay with Zen Office 8000

In reply to a post by yarwell:

So does the priority still work if BT is the only supplier from the exchange?

Indeed it does. Hence the higher minimum speeds on the zen page I linked too.

Considering Zen as a package for my business, what is the priority exactly and is this included in the Business Lite or Active options.

When I do a check on the exchange, it talks of ADSL2+ being planned by 31st August, does this mean you would immediatelly go onto the higher speeds.

Also do you need a specific router for this or do most modern ones support this.

Another thing how accurate as these dates, I remember way back when an exchange I was on had dates showing when it was going to be ASDL max but they were forever changing and it ended up being around a year later

the priority is in the case of 20CN BT services the Office or Premium vs Home service, the former having a higher upload speed (832 ns 448) and a higher priority for traffic at the ATM level which gives it double the minimum acceptable speed.

In 21CN / WBC terms the priority becomes "Elevated Best Efforts". The upload speeds are the same but the higher priority remains.

http://support.zen.co.uk/kb/KnowledgebaseArticle.asp...

excluding products with '8000' in the name :-
"WBC Elevated is used to provide Zen Office and Zen Office Max"
"WBC Standard is used to provide Zen Pro, Active and Lite"

"IPStream Max is used to provide Zen 8000 Pro, Active and Lite"
"IPStream Max Premium is used to provide Zen Office 8000 and Zen Office 8000 Max"

When WBC arrives it depends on the ISP's policy whether you are migrated over or not. The two services continue to be available in parallel. Router requirements are the same, WBC may benefit from ADSL2 / 2+ capability.

Edited by yarwell (Sat 31-Mar-12 16:03:02)