[Bloat] The challenge

[Jim Gettys]

On 05/10/2012 04:30 AM, Hal Murray wrote:
>> It is counter-intuitive to keep a queue filled with packets that you might
>> drop later - as an engineer you tend to think it is more efficient to drop a
>> packet *before* it starts to consume space in your precious queue.  This is
>> a good deal of what needs to be solved in wireless drivers ...

Memory is so cheap that in a wireless router these days the buffers are
in the noise of memory consumption.

> On the other hand, if your problem is buffer bloat, maybe the queue space 
> isn't so precious.
>
> Yes, I too tend to think that way, but maybe it will sink in if I see a few 
> reminders.  Thanks.
The only place where memory cost is still any issue is in very high end
routers.  There, it's been shown you don't need the traditional BDP
buffering anyway, but much, much less.
                        - Jim