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Discussion on: Adaptive Serving using JavaScript and the Network Information API

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addyosmani profile image
Addy Osmani

In Chrome, we leverage our Network Quality Estimator to plumb through the information that gives you a more accurate effective connection type. Although it isn't possible to entirely replicate this client-side, you could write a polyfill for estimating something like bandwidth speed. JS could download files from a server (with correct caching headers, so not in cache) and approximate download speeds that way. This can be notoriously inaccurate so it's important to consider the tradeoffs.

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ahmadawais profile image
Ahmad Awais ⚡️

That's what I have been thinking. Maybe that could be put in a worker but inaccuracy would be a big tradeoff — I think it's better to keep things civil and let it work for the latest versions. Otherwise, I am thinking we'll have to sideload things for mobiles — also I found out that you can't really estimate the network with smaller files coz many ISPs have dynamic fluctuations in a dynamic IP settings — the initial network push is quite strong to download up to a 1Mb file but real speeds start to reflect as we move closer to 10Mb and that's a terrible idea to be implemented. Maybe, that's me but that's where I am :)