Comcast starts new year with new network management system

Comcast reports that its "protocol agnostic" network management system -- unveiled to the Federal Communications Commission in September -- is now in effect. "Comcast will continue to refine and optimize these congestion management practices to deliver the best possible broadband experience for our customers," company Vice President for Regulatory Affairs Kathryn A. Zachem promised the FCC. The announcement also discloses updated acceptable use rules for Comcast customers. "We have deployed the new technique throughout our network and turned off the P2P-specific technique everywhere in the network," Comcast spokesperson Sena Fitzmaurice said. Comcast's revised acceptable use policy page discloses that its network management activities may involve "temporarily lowering the priority of traffic for users who are the top contributors to current network congestion." Specifically, the revised system abandons "deep packet inspection" in favor of a "shallow" method that targets congestion rather than suspicious protocols (e.g., BitTorrent). In some instances, some users will see their traffic reclassified as "Best Effort" rather than the default "Priority Best Effort." If the congestion gets heavy, said tagged traffic could be delayed, Comcast says, but the new method strives to localize the delays so that the least number of Comcast customers see an impact on their service.