Do different types of data have different costs of data for the same quantity? For instance, is using an equivalent amount of bandwidth, say 10Mb, viewing web pages more or less expensive than using 10Mb to download an MP3 or watch a streaming video? If so, what would cause the differences in cost? Is it the number of sources accessing the data?
— Caroline Le Feuvre
In an ideal world, there shouldn’t be any difference in “cost” for a given type of traffic to traverse the Internet. There are other explanations for delays in the traffic in getting from the source to the destination.
The first involves packet shaping. One type of device that can be used for this is Packeteer’s Packetshaper. Depending on how you have the different types of traffic classified, you can control the amount of bandwidth that they can assign to a given type of traffic, with a possibility of bursting up to a certain level of bandwidth assuming that it isnt needed by another type of traffic that could be at the same priority level or a higher priority level. I have seen this type of device used a lot in higher education institution networks to keep bandwidth available for http traffic while limiting or eliminating bandwidth usage for peer to peer applications.
The use of Quality of Service to guarantee certain level of bandwidth being available for “critical” service such asVoIP where unavailability of bandwidth can be the cause of dropped calls or choppy sounds in the voice traffic. While QoS can be used locally on the network, you lose the ability of QoS controlling bandwidth once it leaves your network and crosses onto your ISP’s network. Everyone has to agree on how QoS is setup end to end for things to work as you would expect them to.
Another explanation is something that could be setup on the server you are downloading the particular service or file from. I have noticed that some systems will have a “limit” on the number of files that can be downloaded from a particular destination at any given time. In downloading multiple files from one server or trying to access multiple streams, I may encounter a limit a situation where only the first download/access or two may startup and the others will remain queued until the initial streams or downloads have finished.
After discussing the different reasons for why there might be delays in your accessing certain types of data or files, there isnt a “cost” for handling one type of traffic over another that I have seen. To maintain a certain level of service or access to one type of file/service, a company may throttle or control how the available bandwidth is used in the most effective way. While I havent been able to go into a lot of detail, you should have basic picture of what could be influencing the situation being experienced.
