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Coronavirus and the Internet

Events taking place in the world due to coronavirus very brightly highlight problem areas in society, economy, and technology.

This is not about panic - it is inevitable and will happen again with the next global problem, but about the consequences: hospitals are full, shops are empty, people sit at home ... wash their hands,

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and constantly “store up” the Internet ... but, as it turned out, it’s not enough hard days of self-isolation.

What has already happened?



The busy hour (ChNN) for providers has shifted to daylight hours, as everyone has begun to watch TV shows or download them. Facebook’s head Mark Zuckerberg has already confirmed the fact that the load has risen, stressing that the number of calls through WhatsApp and Messenger has doubled in recent times. Scott Petty, the technical director of the British operator Vodafone, said that the rush hour of Internet traffic lasted from about noon to 9 pm.

Providers felt the increase in traffic, services felt an increase in load, users felt problems with the Internet. And all this translates into complaints from users: the Internet slows down, the video does not load, the games “lag”.

The obvious solution for the services was a temporary decrease in quality - the first to do this were Netflix and Youtube on March 19. This decision was conscious. Streaming platforms and telecommunications companies are “jointly responsible for taking measures to ensure the smooth functioning of the Internet,” said Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for Domestic Market Issues. According to him, users should also take a responsible approach to data consumption.

“To defeat the coronavirus COVID19, we stay at home. Remote work and streaming services help a lot, but the infrastructure may not be able to withstand, Breton tweeted. “To provide access to the Internet for everyone, let's switch to standard resolution where the HD format is optional.” He added that he had already discussed the situation with Netflix CEO Reed Hastings.

How it all began...


Italy.

On February 23, local authorities closed many stores in 10 cities of Lombardy and asked residents to refrain from any movement. But there was no panic yet and people continued to live an ordinary life. On February 25, the governor of the region, Attilio Fontana, told the regional parliament that coronavirus is "a little more than the usual flu." After that, the previously established restrictions were relaxed. But on March 1, quarantine had to be resumed. the number of infected has increased.

And what do we see?

On the chart: on March 1, the start time of the video (the first buffering) increased.

The first buffering is the time that the user waits from pressing the Play button until the first frame appears.


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Italy. The graph of the growth time of the first buffering from 12.02 to 23.03.
The number of measurements is 239,399,719. Source - Vigo Leap

Panic began already and people began to spend more time at home, and therefore - to give a greater burden to providers - and as a result, problems with watching videos began.
The next jump is March 10th. Just coincides with the day of quarantine in all of Italy. Even then, it was obvious that there were problems with the bandwidth of the networks of operators. But the decision about the need to lower the quality of the largest services was made only after 9 days.

The situation is the same in South Korea: since February 27, schools and kindergartens have been closed, and as a result, networks are overloaded. Here with a slight delay - until February 28, there was still enough power.

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South Korea. The graph of the growth time of the first buffering from 12.02 to 23.03.
The number of measurements is 119,266,973. Source - Vigo Leap

These graphs can be viewed for any affected country within the Vigo Leap product .

What awaits us next


The Internet helps to keep people in self-isolation, helps them cope with stress by watching their favorite TV shows, movies or just funny videos with cats, especially at such a time. The significance is obvious to everyone: metro stations, shops, theaters are closed, and providers are advised not to disconnect users even if there is no money in the account.

The decision of world services to reduce quality is absolutely correct. This should be done by all content providers with such technological capabilities, even before the first signs of Internet blackouts and economic consequences.

Increased traffic is an additional cost for operators, which ultimately will fall on a regular subscriber. In addition, it cannot be denied that for other types of traffic problems arise. Here you can give endless examples from interbank operations to video conferences sent to work from home by employees of any field. All this affects the economy in one way or another, and lags in games spoil the nerves of ordinary people.

In Russia, everything is just beginning. Prohibitions appear, more and more organizations are switching to a remote format of work. And what do we see?

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MSK-IX exchange point traffic graph from April 2019 to March 2020. Source - www.msk-ix.ru/traffic

An obvious upward trend in the MSK-IX exchange point traffic graph. Yes, while this does not affect the quality of the Internet, but everything goes to that.

The main thing is to make the right decisions when the boundaries of the width of the operator channels are reached. Most countries are now at this point. There is panic, the Internet is still working, but according to the experience of Italy, China, South Korea, it is obvious that a drawdown is inevitable.

What can be done?


In order to make timely decisions on the feasibility of introducing quality restrictions for certain regions, services can use the Vigo Leap product . There is no need to underestimate the quality for absolutely everyone. The CDN network and the heterogeneity of the operator networks can reduce the speed only where it is really needed.

To make such centralized decisions, Vigo provides a Leap product that allows you to evaluate and timely identify problems with video delivery by country, region, operator, ASN, CDN. Vigo Leap

product for services is free. And this is not a one-time action on the occasion of a pandemic. For 7 years now we have been helping to improve the quality of the Internet, not only during global problems. Vigo leap

It provides an opportunity not only to focus on the number of complaints in technical support, but to immediately see the problems of end users and respond quickly to the situation.

Why do you need this?


In addition to the general solidarity with Internet providers in ensuring the stability of networks under increased load, such measures will help maintain the high quality of your service, which depends on user satisfaction, and a satisfied user is your money.

For example, we recently helped increase the profit of the international streaming service Tango (for details, see vigo.one/tango ).

Metrics that allow you to track the quality of the service and predict the level of user satisfaction, as well as increase the profit of the service in spite of any restrictions on the Internet, you can collect using the Vigo Leap product .

We will be happy to answer your questions. Be healthy!)

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