Why your gigabit broadband lags like hell

Why your gigabit broadband lags like hell � blame Intel's chipset

as used in the Superhub 3

The surges in lag are experienced by subscribers on various big ISPs, from Comcast, Charter and Cox in the US to Rogers in Canada and Virgin Media in the UK. You don't need a full 1Gbps connection to trigger the latency spikes � just at least a super-fast package and a buggy modem.

The problem appears to be that the x86 CPU in the modem is taking on too much work while processing network packets. Every couple of seconds or so, a high-priority maintenance task runs and it winds up momentarily hogging the processor, causing latency to increase by at least 200ms and, over time, about six per cent of packets to be dropped. It affects IPv4 and IPv6 � and it spoils internet gaming and other online real-time interaction that need fast response times.

It's a shame this story is not gaining any traction on this site, I at least expected a news article on it as other online press have picked it up.

http://m.theregister.co.uk/2016/12/03/intel_puma_chi...

http://www.multichannel.com/news/distribution/intel-...

https://www.dslreports.com/shownews/The-Arris-SB6190...

It all adds up to putting pressure on VM to address this BIG issue.

I just re-joined VM after leaving nearly 2 years ago because over subscription which is now fixed only to find this news about the Superhub3 the day after I was connected.

I have no faith in VM implementing a firmware update quickly if indeed a firmware fix is even possible so this morning I cancelled as VM refuse to to exchange the hub3 for a hub2.

Regarding the announcement "the day after I was connected", I have been highly involved with company pensions, for 25 years.

A few years back, a general change was made, that one had to be over 55 or over, to be able to commence drawing such on an Early Retirement basis.

This resulted in twins and greater multiple births being split, those recorded as being born before Midnight of the day previous to the implementation day, could continue to do so.

Their very close siblings, recorded as being born one minute later, had the 5 year delay imposed, even if their membership, contributions etc were identical.

It happens in many walks of life.

Because I have a list of things to do and this was on the list, the most important thing on the list has been done, so far.

Great I'll expect to see something soon then

To see how this issue manifests itself below are links to 2 BQMs, one is mine and one is a friend who lives a few doors away, we are both on VIVID100, both using modem mode and both connected to the same street cab. He has a hub 1 I have a hub 3.

Guess which one is which

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/share/6140531cab0...

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/share/311825cc3a9...

Edited by bingobill (Mon 05-Dec-16 13:36:51)

Well that explains a lot - but it doesn't explain why my SH2 was pretty laggy too, so segmentation is most likely still a problem for me. I don't expect a firmware fix to be pushed out any earlier than six months or so (call me cynical if you must), so I'll be sticking to two different connections via different technologies for now - a luxury I'm grateful for...

I'll throw my own BQM in too, just to add to the data: http://i.imgur.com/QVDD3cd.png . The gap with 100% packet loss is not an error - I was rearranging the furniture and unplugged the cable modem while I moved things around! I'm also in modem mode, using an Asus DSL-N66U as a standalone router. I wasn't using the connection during the small hours.

It more closely resembles the Hub 3 snapshot in bingobill's post, but the max latency isn't quite as high. I don't notice day-to-day problems even though I make fairly heavy use of VoIP and other latency-sensitive applications. (I have a broadband-only line and use VoIP as my only "landline.")

Edited by deleted (Tue 06-Dec-16 16:19:48)

Just wanted to illustrate this - below you can see what happened when I went from the SH3 to the old SH2 (that I still had, VM hadn't asked for it back). Sorry that the graph isn't timed perfectly, I wasn't able to swap the SH2 back in for a few hours hence the long red period

What you can see:
- minimum/average latencies aren't too different
- maximum latency is all over the place with the SH3 (as expected), looks far more normal with the SH2
(maximum latency is still not as good as a VDSL connection, at least partly due to the way that DOCSIS works; but this I don't mind, it's to be expected)

I haven't done any subjective tests (online games etc) to confirm what kind of impact it's had, but the graph says a lot anyway.

My Broadband Ping

We don't have Gigabit yet.