[Bloat] [tsvwg] how much of a problem is buffer bloat today?

Oliver Hohlfeld oliver at net.t-labs.tu-berlin.de
Thu Mar 21 14:14:03 EDT 2013


> I believe you are actually measuring the *fraction of the time* your
> measurements show bad latency

Yes.

> The best data I've seen on how widespread the problem is is the ICSI
> Netalyzr scatter plots results

One has to be extremely careful on what to conclude from this data.
The Netalyzr data shows that bloated buffers _exist_, not that they
are _used_ in practice. Or as Mark has put it: "[it] shows that large
delays due to buffering can happen, not that they do happen."
Empirical evidence cited in my previous mail suggests that buffer
bloat does not happen often.

> I encourage everyone to run netalyzr and/or the mlabs tests for
> bufferbloat on your own broadband connections, or do simple copy and
> ping tests inside your own house over wifi to your local file servers....

While this will identify bloated buffers, it does not help in answering
what fraction of Internet users actually experience the problem.

Oliver



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