[Bloat] Re: The hell has frozen: Latency mentioned at APNIC 62, during a keynote!

[Stuart Cheshire <cheshire@apple.com>]

On Sep 17, 2026, at 12:56, Neal Cardwell <ncardwell@google.com> wrote:

> Likewise, I would not call latency a "resource". The link is the resource. Latency is a performance characteristic. Effective management of the resource (with L4S or other schemes) can yield both low latency and high throughput.
> 
> Calling latency a "resource" makes it sound like something that can be built or purchased. One cannot build or purchase low latency. You can purchase hardware that allows low latency, but you still have to deploy protocols that know how to use the signals to achieve low latency and high throughput.

Very good point. This is 100% right.

A “resource” is something that exists in finite quantity, so you need to decide where to allocate that limited resource. Almost by definition, I think calling something a “resource” is synonymous with saying that its allocation is a zero-sum game.

Stuart Cheshire