Wearing my R2.co.nz hat.....
Several of the Radio stations that R2 carries, are doing live commentaries
of the Rugby games involving the UK Lions. We are experiencing
viewer/listener numbers roughly 3 times our usual "high-water" mark and are
aware that the stations (and presumably ISPs) are getting some complaints
about the streams buffering or not being accessible. The mid week games
seem to produce the highest load, probably because TV3 isn't carrying
delayed broadcasts of these matches, so radio is the only "free to air "
option, other than Sky which isn't free of course.. International fans have
no choice at all and the streams are their only source of live comentary
As our servers are still somewhat under loaded (the streams are only 16kbps
each) and many complaints are from overseas, we are making some changes
over the next week in anticipation of the Test matches and likely audience
numbers.
We have for some months now been spreading load between WIX and APE
connected servers. Today we have started altering our routing and will be
directing all connection requests that are not from APE or WIX peers, to
servers in the USA. Some traffic will still be available via our existing
international bandwidth, but this seems to be the major congestion point.
The USA servers are cheaper than increasing our bandwidth and also allows
us to serve overseas clients more efficiently. We are talking in the
10,000s of clients - these are not small events.
I'm sorry if Operators Help Desks have already been receiving calls of
complaint. Peered Operators won't have noticed any effect. Non-peered
Operators probably have.
The introduction of the US servers, should reduce these calls, although you
may see an increase in international traffic. It should be minor as each
stream is quite small, but please take this as a warning - we are seeing
high client numbers - much much higher than the LOTR Premiere (numerically
we do a higher figure daily now). Peering at APE or WIX will of course
reduce this international bandwidth.
If Operators need help peering at APE or WIX, Andy at CityLink is happy to
assist. Be aware the tests are getting closer......
If time allows we will commission a server at PNIX next week. Operators
close to Palmerston North should consider peering there to save national
bandwidth.
These changes are pretty well permanent, although may be adjusted slightly
or optimized. Later in the month there will be some more content released,
which is expected to raise traffic levels even higher. These streams will
not be small.
Thanks for your time.
Rich
