[Bloat] Does VDSL interleaving+FEC help bufferbloat?

[cloneman <bufferbloat@flamingpc.com>]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1352 bytes --]

Interleaving on DSL is enabled by many providers which allegedly provides
some packet loss protection at the cost of some latency.

I think it's designed mainly Layer 1 line noise, but now I'm wondering if
it might also translate to other benefits, even on a clean DSL line that
doesn't *need* interleave.

Question:
Is interleaving protective of packet loss due to momentary spikes on the
downloads?

I tested it a bit  with the help of my ISP

VDSL:
Interleave+FEC On (15ms first hop) 3% packet loss on steam download stress
Interleave+FEC OFF (4ms first hop) 5-6% packet loss on steam download
stress

With fq_codel: (-15% bw)
Both had 0.3% packet loss (very good) on steam Download stress

Of note, steam downloads used to break fq_codel for me (20 flows split
evenly is how they designed it *sigh*) but it appears that it's working
well now, perhaps steam *finally* fixed their stuff. Steam stress is
performed by downloading any of their free games with their client software
e.g. Dota2.

tl-dr; interesting to test weather interleave+FEC, a technology designed
for layer 1 noise, can help with layer 3 ingress contention for resources.

Also, I found a guy who designed a layer 3 FEC protocol designed for
terrible connections: https://github.com/wangyu-/tinyfecVPN

If anyone wants to comment on that, I think it's nice to know that it
exists.

[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 2226 bytes --]