Congestion control alternatives for residential broadband access

In this note, we first give an overview of the economic and traffic conditions of residential broadband Internet access in the United states, with a focus on Comcast´s multiple-priority approach to congestion control for its cable modem termination system (CMTS). We compare the Comcast framework to alternative proposals, including those based on usage based pricing and quotas. The security overhead and potential network security benefits of usage priced systems are also explored.