Streaming Video Downshifting Data in Face of Network Congestion Worries
Streaming video providers are slowing down video transmissions to free up bandwidth when U.S. ISP networks are jammed, we heard this and last week. More content providers likely dialed back their HD video quality during the pandemic, said Streaming Video Alliance (SVA) Executive Director Jason Thibeault. An FCC official doesn't anticipate requesting streaming video operators throttle bit rates like Europe has (see 2003240032). For our past report about increasing demand on networks, see here.
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Google said that after last month defaulting all YouTube videos to SD to ensure maximum bandwidth availability in Europe for 30 days, it expanded that action globally. It said users can manually adjust quality. It has seen changes in usage patterns from more people at home, expanding across additional hours. Asked whether the SD step-down might extend longer, a spokesperson emailed that the company "will continue monitoring traffic to minimize stress on the system, while also delivering a good user experience." Netflix didn't comment.
Data consumption is growing amid changing consumer patterns affected by COVID-19 and its attendant societal changes. By March 31, average home monthly usage in the U.S. was around 400 Gb, up around 20% from the end of 2019, said OpenVault CEO Mark Trudeau. Most growth came in the second half of March. Extrapolations point to this month ending with 450-460 Gb per household, or a year's worth of usage growth in a few weeks, he said.
There's no cause to worry broadband networks can handle the additional traffic, Trudeau said. He said most gains are in the day, which had ample headroom. He said strain on networks and hourly usage seems largely to have plateaued, as most customers are working or learning from home. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai says ISPs and associations report networks aren't jeopardized (see 2004020059).
Sandvine told us some outlier networks worldwide flatlined, needing no further extra capacity. It said edge providers have reduced their part in congestion, with Sony's PlayStation and Microsoft's Xbox cutting speeds. Traffic on fixed broadband infrastructure networks is up 20-100%, it said. The biggest jump was in daytime hours; while peak used to be evening to midnight, it now starts at around 10 a.m. and goes all day. Video delivery technology company Qwilt isn't seeing indications of significant quality issues with streaming, such as rebuffering. It said traffic in Europe was up more heavily than in the U.S.
There have been some U.S. consumer complaints and data that shows in some areas, network performance has suffered at certain times. Data from millions of daily broadband speed tests globally is "pretty definitive that end-user uplink speeds are being detrimentally impacted," emailed Penn State X-Lab Director Sascha Meinrath. He said the FCC definition of broadband as 25/3 Mbps is "severely asymmetrical." Upstream data use is up heavily due to HD telepresence, so heavier Netflix use isn't a challenge, but "it's the Zoom classrooms and meetings (and soon, telehealth diagnostics) that are going to cause major headaches," he said.
Going from HD to SD video "is an extreme reaction," with SD consuming significantly less data than even the lowest quality HD, said SVA's Thibeault. Unlike TV, with a binary SD-or-HD video quality, streaming video can offer different qualities of HD that require different amounts of bandwidth, he said. The highest quality HD might consume 5 Mbps, "pretty considerable for network congestion," but other versions might require 1.5 Mbps and still offer high quality video, he said. He said users likely can't tell the difference for HD slightly ratcheted down.
Thibeault said a European-style approach would be difficult for the FCC, with European nations generally having a single major telecom provider that's state governed, unlike the wider proliferation of U.S. providers. He said if the U.S. has network problems, it's likely more in rural areas that lack bigger capacity access like fiber to the home. There's anecdotal evidence of slower loading of streaming video, but it's hard to know if that's due to increased network congestion or other issues like equipment, he said.
Increased buffering mightn't reflect so much network congestion as the speeds subscribers signed up for, said OpenVault's Trudeau: With everyone home, "they need a bigger pipe going into their house."
Editor's note: This is the second part in an occasional series of stories about how broadband networks and their users are affected by increased demand for online connections during the COVID-19 pandemic. Part I showed that ISPs are adding capacity and making other changes, amid surges in traffic on their networks. (This and other coverage of the coronavirus have been put in front of our pay wall.)