Three (3) start to implement traffic shaping with their mobile broadband services today. So, what does this actually mean and is it good or bad for their mobile broadband customers?

Why Do We Need Traffic Shaping?

As broadband speeds increase, software and website developers create more and more data intensive applications. P2P file sharing applications, for example, can use up much more bandwidth than an average person browsing the web, and as video streaming quality improves, it uses more bandwidth to stream the higher resolution video.

The majority of users use their mobile broadband connections to browse the web, and send and receive emails, and these users tend to suffer a reduction in quality of service when data-intensive applications are being used by other users in their area. Traffic shaping essentially prioritises the more common, less data-intensive activities, over the less common data-heavy ones.

What Is Traffic Shaping?

In short, traffic shaping aims to improve the quality of service for the majority of users by increasing the bandwidth available to them. However, this comes at a cost to “power users,” who will see the bandwidth available for certain activities such as P2P file sharing and heavy usage of video streaming reduced.

Unlike throttling, which has been used by mobile and fixed-line broadband providers for some time, traffic shaping doesn’t target the user, it targets the activity.

For example, with throttling, a very heavy user who consistently degrades the quality of service for others in the area, by hogging bandwidth, would find themselves limited across all activities – their bandwidth would be individually throttled to reduce the impact they have on other users.

There are several problems with this method, but the most important in terms of quality of service, is that it is reactive rather than pro-active. When a heavy user is detected, they are already hogging bandwidth and degrading service – the network can prevent this user from continuing to do this but other users have already suffered poor service quality. This has been one of the causes of perceived poor performance from mobile broadband services.

Traffic shaping addresses this problem by taking the pro-active approach of limiting bandwidth for any user when participating in certain bandwidth-heavy activities. When a user is using a P2P file sharing network, for example, a traffic shaping system will limit the amount of bandwidth available to that user for that specific activity, whilst still allowing them to use their mobile broadband service for other, less data-intensive, activities without restriction.

What Does All This Mean For 3’s Users?

This should improve the 3 mobile broadband service for the majority of users, and even for heavy users when they’re using the service for less data-intensive activities, as standard web-browsing activities will effectively have priority over file downloads and heavy video consumption.

Users will probably notice a drop in service quality when using P2P file sharing networks and using more than one video stream at once – for example, when multiple users watch video simultaneously, sharing a connection using 3’s Mifi modem, or if a user has more than one video window open at the same time.

If used correctly, traffic shaping will be very effective. The main source of irritation for most mobile broadband users is slow loading web pages and emails, and in a perfect world, with infinite bandwidth, the networks would be able to solve this issue without impacting the “power users” who are using their connections for very data-intensive activities. However, bandwidth is limited, and if 3 can improve the quality of service received by the majority of their paying customers, we can live with having to use fixed-line broadband for the data-heavy stuff.

Bottom line: Service will improve for general use. If you’re using P2P and heavy video services, get fixed-line broadband instead.