[Vortex] Slow throughput over bandwidth-limited socket

[Robert M. Münch]

On Fri, 18 Apr 2008 21:09:05 +0200, Jens Alfke <jens at mooseyard.com> wrote:

> My app is streaming time-sensitive data across a TLS-ified BEEP
> connection; it needs a throughput of at least about 20kbytes/sec
> (160kbits/sec).

Hi Jens, taking into account all your other posting and answering here. I  
don't know anything about your app but REQUIRING 20kbyts/s throughput  
(even we mostly have fast lines today) is a quite hard requirement. A  
mobile connection can easly drop for some time below this value and than  
go up again.

Some thoughts:

- Have you compressed your data? If your data is "typical" you should see  
50% reduction in size. Which would mean 10kbytes/s.

- Reducing the overall data and transfering less with the same information  
value. Don't know if this is possible.

> This should be no problem with typical broadband
> connections, whichever direction the data is going, since uplink
> speeds are usually at least 256kbps. (I've got a fairly pokey DSL
> connection and it manages 480kbps upstream.)

I won't insist on this. For example, if someone is seeding a torrent you  
might not get that much of the capacity. If it's really time-sensitive you  
need to use a "quality of service" approach to ensure the capacity for  
your app.

So, requiring a specific speed in network apps is really a thing you  
should avoid because it's not ensured that you get it. This component  
sounds like it will be always a cause of problems. Robert