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Controlling Bufferbloat With Queue Delay
CowboyRobot writes "We all can see that the Internet is getting slower. According to researchers, the cause is persistently full buffers, and the problem is only made worse by the increasing availability of cheap memory, which is then immediately filled with buffered data. The metaphor is grocery store checkout lines: a cramped system where one individual task can block many other tasks waiting in line. But you can avoid the worst problems by having someone actively managing the checkout queues, and this is the solution for bufferbloat as well: AQM (Active Queue Management). However, AQM (and the metaphor) break down in the modern age when Queues are long and implementation is not quite so straightforward. Kathleen Nichols at Pollere and Van Jacobson at Parc have a new solution that they call CoDel (Controlled Delay), which has several features that distinguish it from other AQM systems. 'A modern AQM is just one piece of the solution to bufferbloat. Concatenated queues are common in packet communications with the bottleneck queue often invisible to users and many network engineers. A full solution has to include raising awareness so that the relevant vendors are both empowered and given incentive to market devices with buffer management.'"
Yep, same cause. They attempted to minimize packet loss by increasing the buffers in their network. The user experience was horrible.
http://blogs.broughturner.com/2009/10/is-att-wireless-data-congestion-selfinflicted.html
Is the internet getting slower? (laggier)
because the simplest pages are HUGE BLOATED MONSTROSITIES!
Between flash and ads. And every single page loading crap from all around the world as their 'ad partners', hit counters, click counters, +1 this, like this, digg this, and all the other stupid social media crap that has invaded the web. All this shit that serves no purpose other than to some marketers. And EVERY SINGLE PAGE has to have a 'comment' section and other totally useless shit tacked on as well.
Just this little page here on slashdot. With less than a dozen replies. Tops 80k so far. And that's with everything being blocked that can be.
slower? laggier? no... the signal to noise raito is sucking major ass.
We all can see that the Internet is getting slower.
Can we? I'd suggest that most people are unaware of any such trend, perhaps because it has happened too gradually and too unevenly. Indeed:
A full solution has to include raising awareness so that the relevant vendors are both empowered and given incentive to market devices with buffer management.
Exactly. Consumers don't know or care about low latency, so the market doesn't deliver it (that plus lack of competition among ISPs in general, but that's another kettle of fish).
We need a simple, clear way for ISPs to measure latency. It needs to boil down to a single number that ISPs can report alongside bandwidth and that non-techies can easily understand. It doesn't need to be completely accurate, and can't be: ISPs will exaggerate just like they do with bandwidth, just like auto manufacturers do with fuel efficiency, etc. What matters is that ISPs can't outright make up numbers, so that a so-called "40 ms" connection will reliably have lower average latency than a "50 ms" connection. That should be enough for the market to start putting competitive pressure on ISPs.
What kind of measure could be used for this purpose? Perhaps some kind of standardized latency test suite, like what the Acid tests were to web standards compliance? Certainly there would be significant additional difficulties, but could it be done?