[Bloat] Bufferbloat Paper

Oliver Hohlfeld oliver at net.t-labs.tu-berlin.de
Mon Jan 7 21:15:47 EST 2013


On Mon, Jan 07, 2013 at 05:54:17PM -0800, Stephen Hemminger wrote:
> The tone of the paper is a bit of "if academics don't analyze it to death
> it must not exist".

This does not reflect statements made in the paper; The paper
does acknowledge the /existence/ of the problem.

What the paper discusses is the frequency / extend of the problem.
Using data representing residential users in multiple countries,
I can basically confirm the papers statement that high rtts are not 
widely observed. The causes for high rtts are multifold and include
more than just bufferbloat. My data also suggests that it is
a problem that does not frequently occur. One reason being that
users do not often utilize their uplink.

> The facts are interesting, but the interpretation ignores
> the human element.

Indeed.

> If human's perceive delay "Daddy the Internet is slow", then
> they will change their behavior to avoid the problem: "it hurts when I download,
> so I will do it later".

Speculative, but one interpretation. Chances that downloads hurt
are small.

Oliver



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