Broadband Forum Building More Accurate Open Source Speedtest

The Broadband Forum has kicked off the development of a new standards focused open source and User Datagram Protocol (UDP) based broadband speed test, which aims to deliver “more accurate results” and “updated methods and metrics which are more suited to the gigabit services now being deployed.”

Accuracy has always a problem with testing any kind of internet connection. For example, traditional web based speedtests can easily be impacted or polluted by issues such as slow WiFi, local network congestion (e.g. background updates or other users consuming bandwidth at the same time as the test being run) and various other problems (e.g. any limitations of the remote server used for testing).

One way around this is to place the testing equipment before the WiFi and have it run during periods of idle connectivity (i.e. low network traffic), which can usually be achieved by either installing a custom modified router into the network (e.g. the SamKnows approach, as used by Ofcom and Virgin Media etc.) or adding custom firmware code into the ISPs bundled broadband router in order to do the same (as used by BT and other ISPs).

Many of these testing systems tend to harness the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), which defines how to establish and maintain an IP network communication through which software programs can exchange data, but the forum notes that they become “less accurate” at speeds over 500Mbps. Some tests may also harness a bit of UDP, which is better at creating low-latency and loss-tolerating connections between internet applications.

At first glance this might suggest that the Broadband Forum’s decision to focus on UDP (with a touch of Google’s QUIC) is intended to target issues of latency and connection reliability, instead of raw data speed, but they actually plan to tackle both via what they’re calling the UDP-based IP Capacity metric (PDF). The forum claims that this new tool will “enable the replacement of many existing test tools, some running over TCP.”

At present we still know very little about the underlying approach and implementation plans for this. The forum merely states that the speed test’s adoption will be fostered through an open source implementation, with the base running code provided by a US network operator, AT&T. Several major international and US operators are also already signed-up and backing the project.

Robin Mersh, CEO of the Broadband Forum, said:

“User experience is at the core of any service provider’s offering, and today’s consumers expect their broadband service to deliver speed, low latency and seamlessness. A benefit to both providers and consumers, the UDP Speed Test is a game-changer, providing a criterion to ensure next-generation networks meet industry-wide expectations and can deliver the connected services we consume every day.”

Internet service providers are currently facing increasing regulatory demands to provide consumers with efficient demonstration of their maximum subscribed speeds, which is likely to be what has driven the forum to kick-start development of the new tool. We suspect this sort of tool would work best inside the code of a broadband router.

In the meantime, the Broadband Forum is planning to host a webinar to discuss this on 21st October 2020 (here).