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hogs by adding more bandwidth for them to consume disproportionately. Focusing on ensuring the highest pos- sible QoS for the average end user moves away from giving bandwidth hogs what they want and toward getting happy, satisfied customers with high QoS. Simply having high levels of band- width on a network does not guarantee high levels of QoS for the majority of av- erage users. In fact, plenty of data shows that, as bandwidth increases, so does video streaming traffic from YouTube, Netflix, Hulu and other video sources. Tis is understandable and desirable. Unfortunately, the data also shows a precipitous increase in file-sharing traf- fic as well. Tis can more than triple the bandwidth requirement for any given network and wreaks havoc with QoS for average user. QUOTA-BASED UTILIZATION MANAGEMENT QoS is rooted in bandwidth availability. Assume, for the sake of argument, a fixed pool of bandwidth that a network can access, a set of average users and a set of bandwidth hogs. If the bandwidth hogs consume a disproportional amount of bandwidth, they make QoS unacceptable for average users, who are the majority. Ensuring that the majority of aver- age end users have high QoS for that given network and bandwidth can solve the problem independent of the band- width issue. Te only ones left with a QoS issue are the bandwidth hogs. In essence, the problem is flipped around. One solution that focuses on QoS instead of bandwidth is Te Mesh Net- works' product set, NetProfit and Quota Defender. Tis solution uses a quota- based management approach to ensure that every user on a given network has equal access to the available bandwidth pool. Tis is done in a simple, elegant way. Tis approach recognizes that band- width hogs inherently use bandwidth more quickly than an average user, so the amount of data they move is sig- nificantly greater than the average user moves in the same time period. Al- lotting each user the same bandwidth quota per time period and then restrict- OCTOBER 2012 | www.broadbandcommunities.com | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | 33 Quotas must be set to penalize users only for continuous abuse, not for transitory situations. ing bandwidth hogs' access to additional bandwidth once they are over the quota ensures that bandwidth hogs do not af- fect the QoS of the other users. If the quota is set so that users are penalized only for continuous abuse situations and not transitory ones, the result is to limit the effect on QoS from bandwidth hogs. Tis is a real-world solution with a proven history. Te Mesh Networks has real-world case studies that demonstrate this exact result. Te benefits of this type of utilization management are as- tounding and are documented in these case studies. A few of these benefits are • Increase in bandwidth utilization of up to 45 percent • Reduction in network peak traffic use by up to 50 percent • Increase in average users' QoS met- rics by 50 percent or more • Reduction or deferral of the need to increase bandwidth. If you build bandwidth, customers will use it and consume all you can pro- vide. Standard techniques for delivering bandwidth to end users work to a point, but delivering bandwidth is not enough. End users also demand high levels of QoS to be able to take full advantage of the riches the Internet provides. Perhaps it is time to focus on provid- ing QoS as a product, rather than band- width, because this is the real bench- mark by which customers measure their Internet service providers. Y