International Bandwidth

Question to ProAsm or anyone with sufficient knowledge to give a credible answer:

What is the capacity of Sentech's international backbone, and how much of it will be allocated / made available to MyWireless users?

In simple terms - what transfer rates can we expect from an overseas site (provided that the site or FTP server in question is NOT a limiting factor)?

We'd also like a copy of your bank balance(in Excel form if possible) [}]

Chopsky: was that bit of sarcasm absolutely necessary?? did I ask what brand of underwear ProAsm or the rest of the Sentech team are wearing, or was I requesting information which I believe is necessary for me to make an informed decision about their offering?

If your places of interest only include Tucows and SA-based gaming servers, looks like you are in for a treat. However, the international link performance was not mentioned (in fact, quite specifically - only references to local transfer rates) by ProAsm - hence the question.

Apologies, if your witty remarks had any further meaning than the very first line of this response.

Back to ProAsm - can you please answer this question? I think that it is very relevant to many potential subscribers of yours...

Hi,

lets get out the fire extinguishers and put out the threat of flames[B)]

South Africa needs World Class Broadband at World Competitive Prices.

I fully agree, kaspaas

Just want a simple answer to my really simple question

From what I can tell, Sentech is using IS for international outbound traffic, and their own satellite infrastructure for the return-route (i.e. international downloads). This essentially means that Sentech has "infinite" international bandwidth, as they are using their own satellite infrastructure (which peers directly into the UK) and can allocate as much bandwidth as they'd like (within the limits of the Satellite's capabilities)

Here is a traceroute from a Sentech VSTAR connection to the UK:

1 66.18.78.49 (66.18.78.49) 0.346 ms 0.324 ms 0.310 ms
2 192.168.150.14 (192.168.150.14) 634.361 ms 645.208 ms 629.790 ms
3 192.168.150.51 (192.168.150.51) 635.118 ms 625.289 ms 644.754 ms
4 192.168.69.253 (192.168.69.253) 641.973 ms 625.095 ms 641.634 ms
5 192.168.21.1 (192.168.21.1) 643.611 ms 635.379 ms 636.523 ms
6 168.209.18.61 (168.209.18.61) 647.441 ms 640.809 ms 635.295 ms
7 core2b-rba.nmszone.is.co.za (196.26.0.9) 671.061 ms 635.175 ms 639.903 ms
8 168.209.0.86 (168.209.0.86) 1082.769 ms 1084.192 ms 1100.356 ms
9 168.209.100.29 (168.209.100.29) 1084.901 ms 1092.106 ms 1099.075 ms
10 * 168.209.246.1 (168.209.246.1) 1079.129 ms 1091.050 ms
11 Serial5-1-0.GW13.LND5.ALTER.NET (146.188.58.161) 1099.068 ms 1087.208 ms 1097.304 ms
12 ge5-0.cr2.lnd5.gbb.uk.uu.net (158.43.157.129) 1087.460 ms 1094.069 ms 1081.072 ms
13 srp2-0.br1.lnd8.gbb.uk.uu.net (158.43.189.5) 1100.074 ms 1090.666 ms 1090.330 ms
14 fe-5-1-0-telee-tashtego.router.clara.net (195.66.226.66) 1219.610 ms 1175.268 ms 1145.328 ms
15 atm-1-0-banner-hussey.router.clara.net (195.8.68.137) 1183.913 ms 1150.097 ms 1140.461 ms

Note that it will obviously display the route taken for the outbound part of the connection, and not the return-path.

-jus

And regarding transfer rates, well on VSTAR I saw anything from 20kb/sec to 90kb/sec.

-jus

do you think they'll implement land-based lines for international gaming/pings ?

I don't think so.

Part of the reason Sentech can make it economically viable to offer broadband bandwidth at such affordable prices is that they have their own existing IP capable carrier infrastructure, which uses satellite, thus circumventing the problem of expensive international cable links.

-jus

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by jus</i>
<br />From what I can tell, Sentech is using IS for international outbound traffic, and their own satellite infrastructure for the return-route (i.e. international downloads). This essentially means that Sentech has "infinite" international bandwidth, as they are using their own satellite infrastructure (which peers directly into the UK) and can allocate as much bandwidth as they'd like (within the limits of the Satellite's capabilities)
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

i am not so sure you can always be certain it uses Satellite connectivity for the return path, as I have just done a traceroute and almost 100% sure this is not using a Satellite :

transit1&gt;tr 66.18.78.49

Type escape sequence to abort.
Tracing the route to 66.18.78.49

1 demon-transit.thn.linx.net (195.66.248.26) 0 msec 0 msec 0 msec
2 tele-border-1-g1-0-0.router.demon.net (194.70.98.174) [AS 2529] 0 msec 0 mse
c 0 msec
3 tele-border-4-233.router.demon.net (195.173.72.54) [AS 2529] 0 msec 4 msec 0
msec
4 tele-core-11-1-0-238.router.demon.net (194.159.176.113) [AS 2529] 0 msec 0 m
sec 0 msec
5 ny1-border-2-x-0-1-1-102.router.demon.net (194.159.176.102) [AS 2529] 88 mse
c 76 msec 80 msec
6 nyiix.is.co.za (198.32.160.26) 76 msec 80 msec 76 msec
7 core1b-ny.nmszone.is.co.za (168.209.244.3) [AS 3741] 80 msec
core2b-ny.nmszone.is.co.za (168.209.244.21) [AS 3741] 76 msec
core1b-ny.nmszone.is.co.za (168.209.244.3) [AS 3741] 152 msec
8 168.209.247.30 [AS 3741] 76 msec 76 msec 80 msec
9 168.209.0.85 [AS 3741] 340 msec 360 msec 348 msec
10 isl.nmszone.is.co.za (196.26.0.3) [AS 3741] 344 msec 340 msec 348 msec
11 168.209.18.62 [AS 3741] 348 msec 348 msec 352 msec
12 66.18.65.222 [AS 22572] 352 msec 364 msec 372 msec
13 * * *
14 * * *
15 * * *
16 * * *
17 * * *
18
transit1&gt;


as you can see it uses the demon network to get the the states where they peer with IS (New York) from where it looks IS brings it back to South Africa .... (no satellites involved)

.222 is the router that peers with the satelite. obviously the next hop (jus's box) is blocking TCP traceroutes.

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">
1 196.34.7.194 [AS 3741] 0 msec 4 msec 4 msec
2 isl.nmszone.is.co.za (196.26.0.3) [AS 3741] 0 msec 4 msec 4 msec
3 168.209.18.62 [AS 3741] 0 msec 4 msec 4 msec
4 66.18.65.222 [AS 22572] 4 msec 12 msec 8 msec
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

<hr noshade size="1">iActive internet services
http://www.iactive.co.za

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Karnaugh</i>
<br />.222 is the router that peers with the satelite. obviously the next hop (jus's box) is blocking TCP traceroutes.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

we should probably not argue about this, but I don't think so ...

1 demon-transit.thn.linx.net (195.66.248.26) 0 msec 0 msec 0 msec
2 tele-border-1-g1-0-0.router.demon.net (194.70.98.174) [AS 2529] 0 msec 0 msec 0 msec
3 tele-border-4-233.router.demon.net (195.173.72.54) [AS 2529] 0 msec 0 msec 4 msec
4 tele-core-11-1-0-238.router.demon.net (194.159.176.113) [AS 2529] 0 msec 0 msec 4 msec
5 ny1-border-2-x-0-1-1-102.router.demon.net (194.159.176.102) [AS 2529] 76 msec 80 msec 76 msec
6 nyiix.is.co.za (198.32.160.26) 80 msec 76 msec 84 msec
7 core1b-ny.nmszone.is.co.za (168.209.244.3) [AS 3741] 172 msec 80 msec
core2b-ny.nmszone.is.co.za (168.209.244.21) [AS 3741] 76 msec
8 168.209.247.30 [AS 3741] 80 msec 80 msec 80 msec
9 * * *
10 isl.nmszone.is.co.za (196.26.0.3) [AS 3741] 348 msec 344 msec 340 msec
11 168.209.18.62 [AS 3741] 364 msec 364 msec 360 msec
12 66.18.65.222 [AS 22572] 364 msec * 356 msec

dont think .222 is not the router peering with the satelite, it already leaves the states via Internet Solutions (sat or cable [?]) at hop 8

hop 1-4 : UK
hop 5-8 : USA
hop 9-12 : South Africa

anyway , it doesn't matter .... i am just bored .. think i'll make some coffee [], cheers

After aels and myself played with a few traceroutes from different locations, it seems there are many international routes available for Sentech IP's (Some through New York, others through the UK, etc)

We'll only be able to tell for sure once we get our hands on a MyWireless IP, what route international traffic will be taking for that IP range.

-jus

"All the way" traceroute from the UK:

[steved@primary steved]$ traceroute 66.18.78.49
traceroute to 66.18.78.49 (66.18.78.49), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets
1 212.111.35.125 (212.111.35.125) 0.413 ms 0.309 ms 0.277 ms
2 ge7-0-0.core1.lhr1.globix.net (209.10.20.198) 0.424 ms 0.333 ms 0.300 ms
3 so-0-0-0.core2.lhr1.globix.net (209.10.11.210) 0.363 ms 0.341 ms 0.307 ms
4 so-4-1-0.core1.lhr2.globix.net (209.10.11.153) 0.726 ms 0.763 ms 0.699 ms
5 so-4-3-2.core1.nyc1 (209.10.10.234) 90.282 ms 90.441 ms 90.022 ms
6 s1-0-peer1.nyc3.globix.net (209.10.12.26) 93.226 ms 93.670 ms 91.132 ms
7 nyiix.is.co.za (198.32.160.26) 91.770 ms 99.562 ms 91.210 ms
8 core2b-ny.nmszone.is.co.za (168.209.244.21) 91.348 ms core1b-ny.nmszone.is.co.za (168.209.244.3) 91.170 ms core2b-ny.nmszone.i
s.co.za (168.209.244.21) 200.558 ms
9 168.209.247.30 (168.209.247.30) 91.446 ms 91.328 ms 91.424 ms
10 168.209.244.2 (168.209.244.2) 95.241 ms 93.289 ms 102.577 ms
11 isl.nmszone.is.co.za (196.26.0.3) 377.516 ms 361.976 ms 360.634 ms
12 isl.nmszone.is.co.za (196.26.0.3) 348.944 ms 359.442 ms 365.766 ms
13 168.209.18.62 (168.209.18.62) 358.286 ms 366.761 ms 408.317 ms
14 66.18.65.222 (66.18.65.222) 375.743 ms 386.710 ms 376.078 ms
15 * * *
16 66.18.78.49 (66.18.78.49) 1070.921 ms 1153.722 ms 1088.253 ms

From Toronto

The problem is that that IP is one used by Sentech internally and may not be anywhere near the IP range(s) allocated for MyWireless.. so these results may be quite useless from a MyWireless perspective. We'll have to wait until we can get our hands on a MyWireless IP.

-jus

On a related issue, determining what IP addresses are connecting through which cell at any given time seems like it would be rather tricky. Uuseful for finding out who you can get nice bandwidth connections to, though.

mithrandi