Ping & Packet loss [Megathread]

Add me to another frustrated Cox HSI customer!  After dealing with the packet loss and high jitter issue for weeks, I went ahead filed FCC informal compliant on last Sat (7-day PingPlotter tracegraph attached showing problem starting from Hop2).

https://forums.cox.com/forum_home/internet_forum/f/internet-forum/25181/az-chandler---constant-packet-loss

Today I received a call from Cox rep in their Exec Office.  He admitted that the node over-saturation is indeed the problem.  He said my neighborhood node has 500+ people on it while typically should only have 200-300 (I'd argue it should be even lesser than that).  

I asked him when the upgrade (a note was left from Cox in my Cox Inbox indicating "infrastructure upgrade" was coming; this was Sep 2019) could happen, and he said it was supposed to be on 02/19/20 but for some reason it did't.  He promised to get back to me on the schedule update.  We'll see. 

What worries me - even after node split, there is still 260+ people on the same node...  I really don't think Cox infrastructure capacity is keeping up with the greater Phoenix area population growth.

That is from whats called line jitter. Due to cox not having sufficient infrastructure and over selling bandwidth packages on infrastructure they knew could not support that many users tied into one CTMS/Node, your data packets get delayed in timing at the CTMS/node and even packets will be lost all together. Nothing you can do to fix it on your end, takes Cox doing infrastructure upgrades. Which at this point it appears has been neglected on a very large scale, they likely cant even resolve this in a timely manner if they wanted to. It will be interesting to see if anything comes of this as more of this is surfaced. I am almost willing to bet they neglected the upgrades only to build their fiber network to start charging more for fiber and push customers off cable and hope that mix balanced itself out without having to spend any money on the cable network. Which likely would of worked since it would of isolated packet loss and jitter between 5pm and 10pm giving them a viable excuse that is easier to explain it all. But now with shelter in place orders, and networks being used at the capacity in which they sold but did not actually have, well the curtain essentially has come down. 

From Cisco's manual (Troubleshooting Slow Performance in Cable Modem Networks): https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/broadband-cable/cable-modems/12551-troubleshooting-slow-perf.html#upstreamchannel

Upstream Channel Congestion

The upstream channel is normally the most precious resource in a cable system. Currently, most cable service providers use a 1.6 MHz channel width and Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) modulation in the upstream path. This equates to approximately 2.5 Mbps in total available upstream bandwidth for all users connected to the one upstream channel. It is important to ensure that the upstream channel does not become over used or congested, otherwise all users on that upstream segment suffer poor performance.

If upstream channel usage is consistently above 75 percent during the peak usage time, end users begin to suffer issues such as latency, slower "ping" times, and a generally slower Internet experience. If upstream channel usage is constantly above 90 percent during the peak usage time, end users experience an extremely poor level of service because a large portion of the end user's upstream data will have to be delayed or discarded.

Sounds like we are in the 75-100% usage.

I would not account for it being put off on the COVID crisis. Cox used all resources in Arizona to install fiber to offer new packages versus maintaining the current network and then continued to sell packages they cant support on nodes heavily over saturated. My nodes 85% over saturated and that came directly from an executive escalation case manager. Yet I can call in right now with my neighbors address who does not have Cox and ask to sign up for gigablast and they will sell it to me no questions asked. 

They should stop selling gigablast immediately, downgrade everyone back to 300 and admit to making a mistake.

Bingo, the likely hood that happens without government intervention or media intervention is about 0.