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Ellocoya's I expect most of BT's customer base probably dont know they even been shaped, they either dont notice or they assume its some form of generic throttle rather than traffic been analysed.
Plusnet implemented the Ellacoyas and split the network into 'pipes' or 'narrowbands' for different protocols. Each protocol is classed as either Platinum, Titanium, Gold, Gold Plated, Silver, Bronze or Best Effort (Tin?). Each class has a narrowband on the network.
Once the narrowband allocation for each class is reached, the network will start dropping packets, firstly low-priority protocols (according to Plusnet's definition) Best Effort and on up to Platinum.
The above decribes the Pro package, which states 'Line Speed', not to be confused with maximum, unfettered network performance. 'Line Speed' will be up to the point at which the protocol narrowband becomes saturated and starts dropping packets, reducing potential line speed, an enforced contention. As well as each protocol having limited bandwidth, the Value and Unlimited packages also have a maximum rate limit imposed. Although the Pro package is not rate limited, each protocol has limited bandwidth before packets are dropped.
In the past, Plusnet have aimed to stop Gold packets dropping by tweaking the Ellacoyas, essentially reducing bandwidth for lower class protocols and increasing it for higher classes, ie. increasing packet loss further down the hierarchy.
By constantly reconfiguring the Ellacoya, the architecture of the network changes, with no guarantee that lower-class protocols won't be allocated less and less bandwidth to stop Gold packets dropping, as is the aim. The Ellacoyas are not subject to T&Cs and their tweaking is not officially recognised, though it can have a detrimental effect on network performance.
So, have Plusnet finally stopped tweaking the Ellacoyas?
Edited by deleted (Fri 20-Feb-09 21:27:36)