The provider network.
WHAT A PROVIDER NETWORK CONSISTS OF
- Access: how customers connect
- Aggregation: collecting many customers onto fewer links
- Core: high-capacity routing between sites
- Edge: connections to other networks
- Services: naming, addressing, authentication, mail
WHAT ACCESS TECHNOLOGIES EXIST
Fibre to the premises Fixed wireless Mobile networks Copper, where it remains Satellite
WHAT MATTERS LOCALLY
Fibre availability is uneven, fixed wireless is common, and mobile carries a very large share of consumer traffic.
WHAT AGGREGATION DOES
Combines many customer connections onto shared capacity.
WHAT OVERSUBSCRIPTION IS
Selling more capacity than the aggregate link can carry simultaneously.
WHY IT IS UNIVERSAL
Customers do not all use their full capacity at once, and provisioning for that would be unaffordable.
WHAT THE CONTENTION RATIO EXPRESSES
How many customers share a unit of capacity.
WHAT IT EXPLAINS
Speeds falling at peak hours.
WHAT TO ASK A PROVIDER
What is guaranteed, as opposed to what is advertised as a maximum.
WHAT TO MEASURE
Performance at busy periods, not at quiet ones.
