For most people, diagnosing a questionable internet connection is next to impossible. After all, the internet is a complex jumble of hardware and software, and the weirdly nervous Zoom call is often accepted as an inexplicable feature of a network that we don’t understand well.
However, internet connection problems are fairly easy to explain. They arise when the flow of data along the Internet cables is interrupted, most commonly when the demand to use the cables is very high. Because of this, your connection seems to be at its worst during rush hour, when everyone is trying to stream video using the same cables at the same time.
And while modern fiber optic cables result in faster internet speeds, it’s likely that we will always experience frustratingly slow internet from time to time. It’s a by-product of a network that is built to be flexible – and the limited load of the cables that support it.
The physical network
The Internet is a network of cables that send digital data over long distances at near the speed of light. The Internet is distributed between countries and continents via a variety of submarine cables. Within the countries, smaller cables run underground until they finally branch off into each of our houses.
In the UK, BT and Virgin Media are the main cable infrastructure providers. It is they who physically connect the internet to UK households, and they are also responsible for running and updating the underground cables that carry your data across the country or to the undersea cables to go further afield.
Some homes have Fiber to the Premises (FTTP) links that connect homes directly with fiber optic cables that can transmit digital data incredibly quickly. However, most UK households have Fiber to the Cabinet (FTTC) connections, which are a little slower.
These provide a high-speed fiber optic connection to local internet closets, from where slower copper wires run the “last mile” to the surrounding houses. Copper can only transmit analog signals, so digital data in households that are connected to the Internet via copper wires must be continuously converted to analog.
In the UK, internet closets like this one are used to distribute internet connection to local households. Collins Photography UK / Shutterstock
According to a current report, Liechtenstein citizens enjoy the fastest internet in the world with 229.98 Mbit / s. The UK ranks 47th in the world with an average speed of just 37.82 mps. Regional differences in internet speed are largely determined by the quality of internet cables. Faster regional networks tend to suffer less interference because they are better equipped to handle high demands, just as high-speed highways handle more traffic than slower roads.
Cable jams
If your internet is slowing down noticeably, it is likely that your local cables are so busy with traffic that they are almost overwhelmed. In these common scenarios, your Internet Service Provider (ISP), the company you pay to provide your Internet connection, steps in to artificially slow down your local Internet network. This gives everyone a minimum of slower service to prevent some heavy users from taking up space on the cables.
The cables that carry data over the Internet can only handle a certain amount of traffic. SeventyFour / Shutterstock
If your ISP does not intervene, internet cables can become overloaded and packets of information will not get through them, resulting in loss of data. ISPs would prefer your internet data to load slowly rather than lose it and not load completely.
The slowdown of the artificial network by ISPs will continue as long as the physical internet cables in your area are oversubscribed. This happens when ISPs sell more internet packages than could be technically supported if every user were to maximize their internet usage at the same time.
Oversubscription is common and since internet usage is rarely used to the max, this is not a problem. It just means that ISPs are forced to slow the internet down when there are many users streaming and downloading large files at the same time.
Hogging bandwidth
This means that on wet and windy weekends, when a large number of people have chosen to sit back and stream a movie at the same time, your ISP is likely to decrease your internet speed.
When updates are released for the world’s most popular video games like Call of Duty, the sudden rush of gamers to download them also forces ISPs to slow down the internet in your home – whether you have a game console or not.
Streaming services have even taken matters into their own hands to ensure their customers can enjoy their content even during times of high demand. In March 2020, when Europe closed for the first time, Netflix and YouTube reduced the standard quality of their video streams to help more people access and watch videos on their platforms amid increasing demand.
Sometimes you will barely notice the speed change, while sometimes it feels like you are using dial-up internet again. It all depends on the number of people in your area trying to use the internet at the same time and how much they charge from the local cables that connect your area to the broader internet.
This article by Andrew Moore, Lecturer in Cyber and Networking at Anglia Ruskin University, and Adrian Winckles, Lecturer in the School of Computing and Information Science at Anglia Ruskin University, is republished by The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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