Truth About The Gigabit Internet Speed

[Iluvnetwork]

My best friend recently decided to buy gigabit internet service from ISP. Today, he told me that he should be able to download 4G movie within a minute soon. He strongly believes that the internet speed should go up to 1000Mbps. I told him that the internet speed won't be 1000Mbps for sure. He didn't believe me so I said that in order to have the real, true 1000Mbps, essentially all the paths' links need to have at least gigabit speed and that is currently impossible. I said, "You probably get less than 500Mbps for sure. I think the speed you get probably falls between 200~300Mbps." Still he didn't believe me so my friend and I bet $10 starbucks gift card.

Please let me know who is right :) Plus, if I am right, please let me know more bitter truth about the gigabit internet.  

P.S. There are so many variables that could possibly negatively affect the internet speed such as loss-based congestion control, rwnd, cwnd, etc. If you know more, please let me know more variables that could possibly affect the internet speed.  

[Mark Malone]

Hi
so f he got a 1000mb line the throughput will be about 125mbs per second as its divided by 8
see this may help bit , thats the general rule for throughput

https://support.myrepublic.com.sg/hc/en-us/articles/202898774-How-fast-is-1Gbps-fibre-broadband-

Data Measurement Chart
Data Measurement	Size
Bit	Single Binary Digit (1 or 0)
Byte	8 bits
Kilobyte (KB)	1,024 Bytes
Megabyte (MB)	1,024 Kilobytes
Gigabyte (GB)	1,024 Megabytes
Terabyte (TB)	1,024 Gigabytes
Petabyte (PB)	1,024 Terabytes
Exabyte (EB)	1,024 Petabytes

[RyanB]

@Mark Malone

Networking doesnt use base-2 numbering, only computers.

Networks, 1Kilobit is 1000bits.

Computers, 1Kilobit is 1024bits.

Pretty negligible, but a common misconception!

[Iluvnetwork]

Wow, I have been thought that 1Kilobit is 1024bits in networking. Thank you very much :)

[RyanB · Accepted solution]

I have gigabit internet, and I can download at approximately 72MB/s over peer-to-peer services. While you're not going to get 125MB/s due to various reasons, your statement about...

essentially all the paths' links need to have at least gigabit speed and that is currently impossible.

...is actually incorrect. It's entirely possible and quite common now.

Imagine a web-server in a datacentre, hooked up to a gigabit port on a switch.

That switch has an uplink to a firewall using gigabit ports.

The datacentre hosting service provides bandwidth to that environment of, lets say a gigabit (might cost a lot)

The datacentre has a core network comprising of links higher than a gigabit to avoid congestion to/from customer environments.

The ISP(s) for that datacentre have core networks, all of which can handle far more than gigabit speeds.

Your friends ISP peers with those other ISPs, all at higher than gigabit speeds.

Your friend has a gigabit connection to his ISP.

Maybe you can convince your friend to have a coffee with you :P

[Iluvnetwork]

Thank you very much. Learned a lot from your comment!

[Joseph W. Doherty]

You're correct that there are many variables involved whether you can actually obtain gig throughput on a gig connection from an ISP. (One you didn't note is current loads, both of the end host systems and network links.) However, the fact there are so many numerous variables doesn't out rightly preclude obtaining gig throughput.

The real bitter truth is: networks are very rarely designed without some over subscription. I.e. your "mileage may vary".

[Julio E. Moisa]

Hi, 

It is a good question, and you have received many great answers. Also we should take in consideration that residential Internet could be shared with other clients per Geo or region, so probably you could not have a dedicated Internet access.