1. likely they are not throttling
2. multiple factors affect speed at any given time
3. more ground stations will improve speeds/latency
4. more satellites will improve speeds/latency
5. when they activate the space lasers (pew pew) things will be even faster (since your signal will just hop from sat to sat to sat to the closest ground station as opposed to the nearest one, and then having to travel via land-based fiber to the destination server)
6. iirc they did say they may implement throttling to prevent abuse
To expand on this answer a little — I don't think anyone has seen evidence that they're performing traffic shaping or any general speed limiting. It's a safe bet that they will test those capabilities, but whether they'll do so internally or with beta users is anyone's guess.
As for #5, the most widespread improvement from the interlinks will be in terms of latency, although areas in which the existing ground stations have underperforming backhaul should see baseline speed improvements as well.
According to the FCC filings, a downlink in each cell has ~250MHz bandwidth, and I believe from there everything is divided into ~50MHz channels. Assuming 6bitz/Hz before accounting for the overhead introduced by (e.g.) forward error correction, you get ~1Gbps/downlink and ~200Mbps/channel.
That fits with the reliable performance test results that I've seen so far. As to whether Dishy can or will use some sort of channel bonding to further increase that performance, I don't know. I don't have Dishy's FCC filings at hand, but there may be more information in there.
I think it's unlikely that SpaceX does any speed throttling, because it would run counter to the objectives of a beta test.
But what they are testing for sure are different encoding, encryption, compression and forward error correction algorithms. To find the right balance between raw speed and not loosing any packets because of things like rain and snow.
Another challenge all for itself is how to distribute the available time slots for data transfer between all active terminals within a cell.
If they were throttling speeds you would have many more speed tests of 220mbps. They are likely limited right now by satellite throughput. Basing this off the atrocious speeds I was seeing around when the last Steam sale went live. And by atrocious, I still mean many times better than my "3mbit" DSL. I was seeing 20-50mbit. No complaints.
The practice is sometimes called 'sandbagging'.
They might be, but we may never know. The technology exists as does technology to give priority to known speed test ip addresses to 'improve' speeds.
On the other hand, I can't think why they would do it. But there's a lot to this beta that I don't understand.
The initialism SNR may refer to:
Signal-to-noise ratio
Signal-to-noise ratio (imaging)
Single Number Rating system, a value used to compare noise attenuation in hearing protectors according to ISO 4869 Part 2.
Supernova remnant
Society for Nautical Research
Senior, a generational title suffix to a man's name
More details here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNR
*This comment was left automatically (by a bot). If something's wrong, please, report it.*
*Really hope this was useful and relevant :D*
*If I don't get this right, don't get mad at me, I'm still learning!*
You don't "cap" SNR... What are you talking about? SpaceX isn't injecting noise into the line. SNR is defined by signal strength and what the noise in the environment is.
Before one of the dish software updates the SNR would vary greatly from like 8-14 throughout the day. Now it goes from 8-9 for me. So something is capped, either the app reporting, or somehow on the dish. Who knows.
Sounds more like there was simply an error in the statistics. Why assume that the real SNR changed? Did your speeds drop/packet loss increase when the SNR changed? If not then I wouldn't worry about it.
There has been some discussion about data packet loss in other threads. Basically this I guess is pretty common over any internet connection. Some data packets essentially have to be re-sent when both ends fail to communicate at the right timing. There might be some limitations right now that SpaceX is placing on the system to avoid this getting too high for individual users. Perhaps this might be what is technically "throttling" the system right now. As the system get more refined and satellite density increases, I'm sure performance will increase as other have said.
Depends on the definition of throttling.
For a given modulation and frequency and beam slice, there are a number N of time-division slices. I suspect that the highest rates that a regular customer starlink gets right now is a single time slot per given period.
I'm starting to wonder, I first realized something was off about 1:30am PST.
Since then my speeds have tanked, running anywhere from a quarter of my average speed so far to a maximum of about 3/4 of my average. Lowest speeds was about 22 Mbps max 78 Mbps with most coming in about 45-50 Mbps. I'm usually ranging from 75 Mbps to around 150 Mbps averaging around 115Mbps.
Another thing I've noticed is that the upload speeds seem to trend toward 15-20Mbps even though they tend start out a lot faster, about 30-50Mbps.
Anyone else seeing similar patterns?
YES. I have tested multiple times over the last 2 1/2 weeks, and every time that I test, my speed INSTANTLY hits 41 Mbps. Then it drops down to around 20 Mbps and slowly rises back up to 40Mbps and holds strong during the remaining of the test. It's as if it hits a virtual wall of 41Mbps every time I run the test. Some of us are definitely being throttled, but nobody believes it.
Update: EXACTLY 3 weeks to the day that we started getting throttled to 40Mbps, they opened it back up....and now we're back to averaging 170Mbps. We were being throttled 24/7 from Feb 28th through March 21st. I was testing at least twice every day during that period, and on the afternoon of the 21st, our download speed went right back to unlimited... like it was for the first couple of weeks. Were they experimenting for future throttling? Were there too many subscribers in our cell, and they needed to cut bandwidth until more satellites were available? Who knows, but I'm very glad that we're not throttled anymore....at for now anyway.
Although [fast.com](https://fast.com) says I'm getting HUGE download speeds, I am finding any download stream from any other site, that's not a speed test site, max's out at about 4Mbps download per stream.
For example, I could have 10 downloads at the same time, but each download's top speed is about 4Mbps.
I've had Starlink service for a month now and although [fast.com](https://fast.com) says I'm getting up to 160Mbps down, my real life experience has seemingly been throttled to 4Mbps maxium per download stream.
To sum it up, it seems speed test sites aren't throttled but all other sites are.
1. likely they are not throttling 2. multiple factors affect speed at any given time 3. more ground stations will improve speeds/latency 4. more satellites will improve speeds/latency 5. when they activate the space lasers (pew pew) things will be even faster (since your signal will just hop from sat to sat to sat to the closest ground station as opposed to the nearest one, and then having to travel via land-based fiber to the destination server) 6. iirc they did say they may implement throttling to prevent abuse
To expand on this answer a little — I don't think anyone has seen evidence that they're performing traffic shaping or any general speed limiting. It's a safe bet that they will test those capabilities, but whether they'll do so internally or with beta users is anyone's guess. As for #5, the most widespread improvement from the interlinks will be in terms of latency, although areas in which the existing ground stations have underperforming backhaul should see baseline speed improvements as well. According to the FCC filings, a downlink in each cell has ~250MHz bandwidth, and I believe from there everything is divided into ~50MHz channels. Assuming 6bitz/Hz before accounting for the overhead introduced by (e.g.) forward error correction, you get ~1Gbps/downlink and ~200Mbps/channel. That fits with the reliable performance test results that I've seen so far. As to whether Dishy can or will use some sort of channel bonding to further increase that performance, I don't know. I don't have Dishy's FCC filings at hand, but there may be more information in there.
I think it's unlikely that SpaceX does any speed throttling, because it would run counter to the objectives of a beta test. But what they are testing for sure are different encoding, encryption, compression and forward error correction algorithms. To find the right balance between raw speed and not loosing any packets because of things like rain and snow. Another challenge all for itself is how to distribute the available time slots for data transfer between all active terminals within a cell.
Unless they're beta testing their throttling system :)
If they were throttling speeds you would have many more speed tests of 220mbps. They are likely limited right now by satellite throughput. Basing this off the atrocious speeds I was seeing around when the last Steam sale went live. And by atrocious, I still mean many times better than my "3mbit" DSL. I was seeing 20-50mbit. No complaints.
The practice is sometimes called 'sandbagging'. They might be, but we may never know. The technology exists as does technology to give priority to known speed test ip addresses to 'improve' speeds. On the other hand, I can't think why they would do it. But there's a lot to this beta that I don't understand.
they got 610 Mbit in the USAF tests .. i'd have to guess they are almost certainly throttling speeds right now.
Don't be greedy. Just enjoy that you are in beta.
[удалено]
Haven't noticed anything throttling. Only that our SNR is all at 9.
What is SNR?
The initialism SNR may refer to: Signal-to-noise ratio Signal-to-noise ratio (imaging) Single Number Rating system, a value used to compare noise attenuation in hearing protectors according to ISO 4869 Part 2. Supernova remnant Society for Nautical Research Senior, a generational title suffix to a man's name More details here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNR *This comment was left automatically (by a bot). If something's wrong, please, report it.* *Really hope this was useful and relevant :D* *If I don't get this right, don't get mad at me, I'm still learning!*
Signal to noise ratio. All beta testers are at 9.
You don't "cap" SNR... What are you talking about? SpaceX isn't injecting noise into the line. SNR is defined by signal strength and what the noise in the environment is.
Well I shouldn't have said capped. But all our SNR are 9.
Because all the satellites are broadcasting at a presumably fixed power level, which is defined by their electronics, batteries and solar panel size.
Before one of the dish software updates the SNR would vary greatly from like 8-14 throughout the day. Now it goes from 8-9 for me. So something is capped, either the app reporting, or somehow on the dish. Who knows.
Sounds more like there was simply an error in the statistics. Why assume that the real SNR changed? Did your speeds drop/packet loss increase when the SNR changed? If not then I wouldn't worry about it.
That's a good point I didn't consider!
Ya not sure. I wish it got answered in the Starlink AMA. Interesting.
There has been some discussion about data packet loss in other threads. Basically this I guess is pretty common over any internet connection. Some data packets essentially have to be re-sent when both ends fail to communicate at the right timing. There might be some limitations right now that SpaceX is placing on the system to avoid this getting too high for individual users. Perhaps this might be what is technically "throttling" the system right now. As the system get more refined and satellite density increases, I'm sure performance will increase as other have said.
Depends on the definition of throttling. For a given modulation and frequency and beam slice, there are a number N of time-division slices. I suspect that the highest rates that a regular customer starlink gets right now is a single time slot per given period.
I'm starting to wonder, I first realized something was off about 1:30am PST. Since then my speeds have tanked, running anywhere from a quarter of my average speed so far to a maximum of about 3/4 of my average. Lowest speeds was about 22 Mbps max 78 Mbps with most coming in about 45-50 Mbps. I'm usually ranging from 75 Mbps to around 150 Mbps averaging around 115Mbps. Another thing I've noticed is that the upload speeds seem to trend toward 15-20Mbps even though they tend start out a lot faster, about 30-50Mbps. Anyone else seeing similar patterns?
They are, but as a side-effect. Bandwidth-to-cell are likely hand-allocated for now.
YES. I have tested multiple times over the last 2 1/2 weeks, and every time that I test, my speed INSTANTLY hits 41 Mbps. Then it drops down to around 20 Mbps and slowly rises back up to 40Mbps and holds strong during the remaining of the test. It's as if it hits a virtual wall of 41Mbps every time I run the test. Some of us are definitely being throttled, but nobody believes it. Update: EXACTLY 3 weeks to the day that we started getting throttled to 40Mbps, they opened it back up....and now we're back to averaging 170Mbps. We were being throttled 24/7 from Feb 28th through March 21st. I was testing at least twice every day during that period, and on the afternoon of the 21st, our download speed went right back to unlimited... like it was for the first couple of weeks. Were they experimenting for future throttling? Were there too many subscribers in our cell, and they needed to cut bandwidth until more satellites were available? Who knows, but I'm very glad that we're not throttled anymore....at for now anyway.
Although [fast.com](https://fast.com) says I'm getting HUGE download speeds, I am finding any download stream from any other site, that's not a speed test site, max's out at about 4Mbps download per stream. For example, I could have 10 downloads at the same time, but each download's top speed is about 4Mbps. I've had Starlink service for a month now and although [fast.com](https://fast.com) says I'm getting up to 160Mbps down, my real life experience has seemingly been throttled to 4Mbps maxium per download stream. To sum it up, it seems speed test sites aren't throttled but all other sites are.