Re: Network Information API: Mozilla's proposal

This is definitely a better proposal.

But it fails to consider that performance can vary by endpoint. The same can apply for metering.

There are cellular carriers which for example have plans that make 0.facebook.com "free" [1]. There are also countries which make bandwidth to e.g. "*.us" slow [2]. I wanted to provide a reference for ISPs that specifically throttle Netflix to favor their own service...

Recently, I heard there was some discussion somewhere about exposing information about metering, but unfortunately no URL was provided.

For bandwidth, I believe the right API is one which provides feedback on actual network requests. I think that Progress Events [3] enable this already. There's also the WebPerf WG [4] which has a number of documents, which may address this, such as 
resource timing [5].

For metering, without information from the user's ISP in the form of an API that is specific to the destination and the intended time window [6], any answer we could provide is misleading and even harmful, just as you noted the current API.

[1] http://www.facebook.com/blog.php?post=391295167130
[2] http://m.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/03/-ldquo-the-connection-has-been-reset-rdquo/6650/
[3] http://www.w3.org/TR/progress-events/
[4] http://www.w3.org/2010/webperf/
[5] http://www.w3.org/TR/2011/WD-resource-timing-20110524/
[6] http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2009/01/how-canadian-isps-throttle-the-internet.ars
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Received on Thursday, 29 December 2011 15:55:46 UTC