Internet rush hour

Key takeaways

Internet rush hour belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Internet rush hour to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Internet rush hour from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Internet rush hour is the time period when the majority of Internet users are online at the same time. Typically, Internet Rush hour occurs between 7 and 11 pm local time. During this time frame, users commonly experience slowness while browsing or downloading content. The congestion experienced during the rush hour is similar to transportation rush hour, where demand for resources outweighs capacity. In contrast to the hours cited above from a source dated 2011, a Google Analytics report dated 2017 indicates very strongly that daily web use peaks between 9 am and midday, falling off steadily throughout the day with a modest levelling off between 7 pm and 10 pm, and then collapses to a base at 4 am.

Reasons

Growth Global Internet usage has increased significantly across the world from 12,881,000 hosts in 1998 to 908,585,739 hosts in 2012. Internet use has surged with the introduction of mobile devices and tablet computing. Internet access has also changed during this time frame from 56 kbit/s dial-up to high-speed bandwidth access at 100 Mbit/s or higher. The increase in Internet users and increase in access bandwidth is a contributing factor to the Internet Rush Hour. The table below shows the big picture of world internet usage versus the population.

Infrastructure

End users connect to the Internet through Internet service providers (ISPs). The Tier 1 ISPs own the infrastructure, which includes routers, switches and fiber optic footprints. The back bone of the Internet is connected through Tier 1 ISPs that peer with other Tier 1 ISPs in a transit-free network. These peering agreements between Tier 1 ISPs have no overt settlements, meaning there is no money exchanged for the right to pass traffic between Tier 1 peers. Tier 2 and Tier 3 ISPs are customers of the Tier 1 ISPs and rely on the Tier 1 ISPs to route their traffic across the Internet. This is a disadvantage for the lower tier ISPs due to the amount of traffic hops and shared common gateways to Tier 1 ISPs. The shared common gateways are choke points that contribute to the Internet Rush Hour. Each Tier 1 ISP has a peering policy that defines how IP Traffic exchanges are created and guidelines for managing peer traffic.

Bandwidth throttling Some ISPs have been criticized for implementing bandwidth throttling to intentionally slow down a user's internet service at various points on the network. The key problem at peak hour is however the peering capacity: it represents the size of the doors between two networks. If everyone wants to go through the door at the same time, it gets jammed. The constant increase in Internet traffic requires regular increases in the size of the peering points and there is a dispute as to who is going to cover the cost of these increases. For instance, Netflix and Google are reported to represent more than 50% of peak hour downstream traffic in the US in a study by Sandvine (figures for October 2013). There is a commercial and legal battle in progress to determine who will pay for the costs induced by peak hour traffic. Three positions exist:

The users must cover the cost through higher subscription fees because they generate the higher traffic. The ISPs must cover the cost because they receive money from the users to access the Internet and it's part of their job to guarantee that the users can access the services. The top content providers must cover the cost because they receive money from the user to access their service and they use an unfair share of the Internet infrastructure. As an example of these fights, Comcast went up against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in regard to net neutrality, or keeping their networks open regardless of the content. The federal appeals court ruled that the FCC had no authority to stop Comcast from slowing internet traffic.

Performance

British broadband A study with British telecom regulators, Ofcom and SamKnows Broadband determined that the average British broadband connection actually achieves less than half its advertised speed. That study determined that the average broadband speed was 3.6 Mbit/s versus an advertised speed of 7.2 Mbit/s with speed declining 30% during Internet Rush hour.

Netflix Netflix rated various ISPs in 2011 on their ability to stream content to consumers and determine what type of bandwidth the ISPs provide. Netflix tested HD streams which use about 4,800 kilobits per second and averaged what ISPs were able to provide.

FCC broadband study The United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) measuring broadband program from August 2011, is a study of performance in the United States covering 80% of the residential market. The report measures ISPs promise of performance to advertised bandwidth rates. In 2011, the average ISP delivered 87% of advertised rates, increasing to 96% performance in 2012. Average broadband speeds increased from 11.1 Mbit/s in 2011 to 14.3 Mbit/s in 2012. Further increases may be inhibited by outdated modems which prevent ISPs from controlling broadband performance.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Internet rush hour

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Internet rush hour claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Internet rush hour before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Internet rush hour ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Internet rush hour

In research: Internet rush hour appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Internet rush hour in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Internet rush hour is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Internet architecture, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Internet rush hour outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Internet rush hour in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Internet rush hour means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Internet rush hour out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Internet rush hour in simple terms?

Internet rush hour is the time period when the majority of Internet users are online at the same time. Typically, Internet Rush hour occurs between 7 and 11 pm local time.

Why does Internet rush hour matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Internet rush hour?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Internet rush hour.