《紙牌屋》背後的資料流之爭

'House of Cards' didn't exactly break the Internet last week, but it certainly gave it a bruising.

《紙牌屋》(House of Cards)上週沒有搞垮網際網路，但肯定給它劃了道口子。

Many fans of the award-winning Netflix series couldn't wait to finish the show's new season and binged on the political drama for hours last weekend after videos went live Valentine's Day. But there's one thing they didn't see amid all the intrigue onscreen: the equally tense drama behind it.

上週末，這部由Netflix Inc.出品、榮獲多項大獎的政治劇情片在情人節當天網上直播，眾多粉絲迫不及待地想把新一季刷完，連續數小時線上收看這部劇集。然而在他們欣賞這部權謀大戲的時候卻沒有看到，屏幕後面也在上演著同樣緊張激烈的“劇情”。

The Internet is a huge and complex system, yet the way online video reaches us is still pretty straightforward. Viewers request a show from a server the size of a mini fridge, setting in motion a stream of data that flows through a variety of Internet service providers to their living rooms. Each of those service providers provisions a fixed amount of bandwidth to handle all that video.

網際網路是一個大而雜的系統，不過我們獲取線上視訊的方式卻很簡單。你只需向一個迷你冰箱大小的伺服器發出播放請求，資料流就會通過多樣的網際網路服務供應商進入你的起居室中。每家服務供應商都需要保持一定頻寬來傳輸這些視訊。

A simmering dispute between Netflix Internet provider Cogent and broadband carrier Verizon has revealed what happens when that bandwidth is in short supply. A wide swath of Internet users suffer slow speeds.

而Netflix的網際網路供應商Cogent Communications Group Inc.與寬頻運營商Verizon Communications Inc.之間的激烈爭執揭示了頻寬供應不足的後果：使一大批網際網路使用者的網速變慢。

Cogent and Verizon are handling massive and growing amounts of data, but their links to each other have remained around the same size, according to Cogent chief Dave Schaeffer. The company shared the following charts, which aggregate the traffic flowing through Cogent's 'peering' ports--the joints where its pipes hook up to those operated by Internet service providers.

Cogent首席執行長謝弗(Dave Schaeffer)說，Cogent和Verizon正在處理龐大且不斷增長的資料，但兩家公司之間的連結量卻基本保持不變。Cogent提供了兩張圖表，對通過其“互聯”埠的資料流量進行了合計，這些埠的管道和網際網路服務供應商的管道相連。

Here's the flow with Verizon:

下圖是Cogent與Verizon之間的流量：

And here it is with Comcast:

下圖是Cogent與康卡斯特(Comcast Co.)之間的流量：

As you can see, Cogent's outbound flows to Comcast and Verizon ran at full capacity for as much as 12 hours a day over the weekend--the same time viewers were likely following Frank Underwood's machinations.

如上所示，上週末Cogent每天長達12小時滿負荷地向康卡斯特和Verizon輸出資料，這個時間段很可能是觀眾欣賞安德伍德(Frank Underwood)大作的時間。

That traffic outbound from Cogent into Verizon pushed the links to limit of what both companies' network equipment is designed to handle -- the flatlines at the top of the graphs. Inbound flows--the section in green--zipped through well below capacity. That basically illustrates the arguments made by companies like Verizon and Comcast, that Cogent/Netflix's traffic flows are extremely one-sided.

圖表上端平直的曲線說明，Cogent傳輸至Verizon的資料量達到了兩家公司網路裝置工作量的極限。但流入Cogent的資料量（綠色部份）卻遠小於極限值。這大體說明了Verizon和康卡斯特這類公司的看法：Cogent/Netflix的資料流極不平衡。

Middlemen like Cogent complain that broadband providers aren't upgrading their existing connections fast enough to handle the onslaught of traffic. But broadband providers argue that if any network dumps more traffic onto their pipes than what they send back, the network needs to pay.

像Cogent這樣的中間商抱怨寬頻供應商沒有儘快升級系統以應對資料量的暴增，但寬頻供應商反駁說，如果哪家網路運營商輸出的資料量超過了它們接收的資料量，那就該為此買單。

Companies have no legal obligation to make those upgrades, said Patrick Gilmore, chief technology officer for the Internet hub operator Markley Group. 'They're a private company, and they can do what they want,' he said.

網際網路中心運營商Markley Group首席技術長吉爾摩(Patrick Gilmore)說，公司沒有法律義務進行升級；它們是私人公司，可以照自己的想法行事。

Networks with a dispute about how to share traffic often reach a standstill until they come up with an agreement both can live with. Disorganization is also often to blame. Large telecom companies have dozens of links to worry about upgrading. It often takes months for a network engineer to get around to responding to a new connection request, even if the added traffic lane would ease congestion for both sides.

這種流量分擔不均造成的糾紛往往會僵持不下，直到雙方達成讓彼此都能接受的協議為止。連結的分散無序也是導致這一問題的原因。大型電信公司通常有數十條連結，升級起來很麻煩。即使新增加一條資料管道對雙方而言都有助於緩解擁堵，但網際網路工程師也經常要等上幾個月的時間才有空處理增加連結的請求。

Some smaller websites complain of being caught in the crossfire. Rusty Hodge, general manager of the San Francisco-based streaming radio site SomaFM, said his service was 'unusable' to many East Coast listeners last week because of the congestion.

一些小網站抱怨說，自己成了大公司爭執不休的受害者。舊金山線上電臺SomaFM的總經理霍奇(Rusty Hodge)說，上週美國東部地區許多聽眾因為資料阻塞而無法使用他的服務。

The music site relies on donations from listeners who aren't likely to pay if the audio stream keeps dropping out, so Mr. Hodge plans to find a new route to reach his frustrated users and expects to pay more to do so.

這家音樂網站的資金來自使用者的捐款，如果音訊流總是斷開的話，使用者就不大可能掏錢，因此霍奇準備找一條新的路徑為使用者提供服務，為此估計會付更多的錢。