I'm considering changing the Server bandwidth limit for TPU from its current setting of No limit to 1024 Kbps. This is a Battlefield 1942 server setting, which is described as follows: "The server will throttle total bandwidth usage to the limit you set here. Set this value to the speed of your Internet connection."

The setting has been at No limit for a couple of years now, and TPU has been working reasonably well during that time, aside from some other problems like Gamespy traffic floods. So I'm not entirely sure that it's a good idea, and if I make this change and things get worse, I will change it back.

Part of the problem is that it's not exactly clear what this setting does. With its current setting of No limit, when TPU traffic exceeds the WAN upload limit imposed by my Internet provider, presumably some of that traffic starts to get dropped, or is subjected to delays. This would obviously cause lag for TPU players. But if the Server bandwidth limit setting is set to 1024 Kbps, presumably when this limit is reached, the BF1942 dedicated server software steps in to reduce the traffic being generated and keep it under the physical limit imposed by the provider. Which sounds good, but how would that affect TPU players? Presumably the BF1942 server would reduce traffic by skipping packets, but wouldn't that appear to the player as lag? So, in the end, what difference is this setting likely to make? It's an interesting question.

Until recently, the upload limit imposed by my provider was 512 Kbps. I recently upgraded my service, so the upload limit is now 1024 Kbps. According to my provider, that limit is being increased to a theoretical maximum of 2500 Kbps in the near future, although that doesn't appear to have happened yet.

What do you think about this?

UPDATE 2011Aug17: Shaw did update the upload speed limit and I went ahead and changed the server bandwidth limit of TPU from 'no limit' to 2048 Kbps. We'll see if that has any effect on server stability or lag.

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-- Jeff (boot13)