60 Gbits/s BBC iPlayer Streaming
The BBC’s Anthony Rose has been discussing the bandwidth use and other aspects of the popular iPlayer service in an interview with CNET UK.
“I think that at the moment, just for streaming, iPlayer uses about 60Gbps of bandwidth (that’s about 7.5GB downloaded every second) in an evening peak. I think about 15Gbps for downloads, and about 1.5Gbps for iPhone.”
For comparison the London Internet Exchange LINX traffic peaks at just over 400 Gbps, so this is a serious amount of capacity.
If the iPlayer streaming traffic were all carried on BT Wholesale connections the monthly cost to ISPs would be in excess of £4.8 million, quite a cost to absorb since the iPlayer’s introduction at Christmas in 2007.
A proportion of the bandwidth is fed to Virgin Media customers via their TV / Video on Demand platform, rather than through the internet or cable broadband connections.
[ CNET UK ]
Category: Broadband Issues
May 12th, 2009 at 8:47 am
It is quite a cost to absorb, but the idea is that the end user absorbs that cost by paying x pounds per month for y GB of data. If I pay a monthly fee for 15GB of data, I expect that the ISP can actually provide me with that 15GB. Surely you’re not telling me that the ISPs aren’t paying for all the bandwidth they’re selling us…? Perish the thought!
May 12th, 2009 at 9:23 am
Some users pay x for up to y GB, but the average use will be y/2 or so. Otherwise x = 10 + y per month.
Many just pay x and don’t have a y but have the same issue. If the average use is too high then x isn’t enough and something breaks.