Comcast, BitTorrent Announce ‘Network Capacity Management’ Talks

However, it remains to be seen whether Comcast’s talks with BitTorrent and network pledges will go far enough to satisfy those concerned about traffic throttling, which has already led to the first in a series of FCC hearings into the allegations against Comcast. 

Hoping to address network capacity constraints and support higher bandwidth services to a broader customer base, Comcast claimed at the Consumer Electronics Association’s annual conference in early January that it will pass up to 20 percent of its customers with DOCSIS 3.0 technology by the end of the year.

DOCSIS 3.0 was created to let cableco networks bond multiple channels to support downstream speeds of up to 160mbps and upstream speeds of up to 120mbps. Vendors such as Cisco Systems Inc. have developed compliant equipment.

Realizing that this is a huge network work-in-progress it remains to be seen whether Comcast can effectively manage network capacity without impacting performance of any applications in the long interim.

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