Re: detecting connection speed

On Wed, 04 Dec 2013 06:05:55 +0100, Puneet Mohan Sangal  
<pmsangal@yahoo-inc.com> wrote:

> James, I understand it's a difficult problem to solve, however it will  
> be a very useful dimension when conducting analysis on performance data.

Well, as James said, it isn't so much that it's difficult, as that the  
granularity means the results are often useless (or even harmful).

> May be we should start with what the possible solutions could be, and  
> then consider the pros & cons?

I think that isn't a bad idea. Despite the problems, there ar cases when  
it seems useful. For instance, an app that has a default when performance  
is good, but can switch to a fallback mode where the network is shaky, can  
sensibly make use of data. The converse may or may not be true of course.

> Phillipe, how can we obtain more info on Network Information API status?

Using progress events where they represent a network event is another data  
source.

Following what James says, I think one thing we might consider is looking  
carefully at the likely *consistency* of network speed. It may be that we  
discover the problem he explains is really widespread, or it may be severe  
when it occurs but very limited, or something else. Characterising the  
network better in real apps doesn't seem like a bad idea.

cheers

Chaals

> Cheers,
> Puneet
>
>
>
> From: James Graham  
> <james@hoppipolla.co.uk<mailto:james@hoppipolla.co.uk>>
> Date: Tuesday, December 3, 2013 9:46 PM
> To: "public-web-perf@w3.org<mailto:public-web-perf@w3.org>"  
> <public-web-perf@w3.org<mailto:public-web-perf@w3.org>>
> Subject: Re: detecting connection speed
> Resent-From: <public-web-perf@w3.org<mailto:public-web-perf@w3.org>>
> Resent-Date: Tuesday, December 3, 2013 9:47 PM
>
> On 03/12/13 16:04, Philippe Le Hegaret wrote:
> On Wed, 2013-11-27 at 09:38 +0000, Puneet Mohan Sangal wrote:
> Is there any ongoing work in detecting connection speed, as part of
> this group?
> See http://www.w3.org/TR/system-info-api/#network and  
> http://www.w3.org/2012/11/performance-workshop/report.html#i4
>
>
> The short answer is no one is working on it in the web performance
> working group at the moment. I don't quickly see any visible progress on
> the Network Information API for the past 12 months but you may want to
> ask them if there were progress or not.
>
> Detecting connection speed in a useful way is a very difficult problem,
> not least because it's often a time varying quantity (consider a mobile
> device that might switch between wifi, 3G, 3G but with high packet loss,
> and no signal at all, all in the course of interacting with a single
> page). I think that in general trying to expose this kind of data can
> lead to worse user experiences than not exposing it (e.g. if pages
> erroneously shift into some sort of "low bandwidth" mode due to some
> temporary network congestion or whatever). Therefore I don't think this
> should be something that we expose, unless it is clear that we can do it
> in a good way that will solve actual problems.
>
>
>


-- 
Charles McCathie Nevile - Consultant (web standards) CTO Office, Yandex
       chaals@yandex-team.ru         Find more at http://yandex.com

Received on Wednesday, 4 December 2013 09:51:23 UTC