Re: [tlug] Bittorrent Newbie

[Edward Middleton <edwardmiddleton@example.com>]

On Wed, 2006-01-25 at 13:49 +0900, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
> >>>>> "Edward" == Edward Middleton <edward@example.com> writes:
> 
>     Stephen> No, it's supposed be more bandwidth efficient (ie, it
>     Stephen> uses unsaturated bandwidth, which---except for
>     Stephen> packet-metered connections---is free), and slower.
> 
>     Edward> That is not what bandwidth efficiency means.  For lack of
>     Edward> a better definition it is a relationship between the
>     Edward> transfer speed to the bandwidth used.
> 
> Er, that's optimistic.  There is _no_ technical definition, at least
> not that I could recognize in the first ten pages of Google output for
> "bandwidth efficiency definition dictionary".  From that sample
> "bandwidth efficiency" seems to be a marketing buzzword for "effective
> use of available bandwidth".
My source is Fred Halsall "Data Communications, Computer Networks and Open Systems."  ISBN 0-201-42293
 page 38.  You will also find an explanation in
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~barry/mydocs/CS3282/lastyear/csdc7.pdf or any
decent text book on Data Communications. 

> I choose to view this from a global standpoint, ie, maximum network
> flow, not maximum flow for an individual downloader.
It is not for you to choose as I made the statement and it was
addressing your response to Scots observation that downloads speed
seemed slower using bittorrent.  Thus we are only talking about download
so your statements about efficient use of the network as a whole are
irrelevant.

Edward