[Bloat] fq_codel is *three* years old today

[Rich Brown]

Folks,

Today is the third anniversary of the announcement of a testable fq_codel (see https://lists.bufferbloat.net/pipermail/cerowrt-devel/2014-May/002984.html et. seq.)

Here's (an approximation of) the state of the world:

- We didn't know it at the time, but we would be able to declare victory on CeroWrt less than three months later with the 3.10.50-1 build. Not only did that firmware reduce bufferbloat, but it showed that DNSSEC and IPv6 could be implemented in "normal" home routers without any kind of jiggery-pokery. Field reports at the end of 2014 showed that build was very stable - we had lots of reports of 80 day uptimes, and a high of ~140 days.

- fq_codel is installed a large and growing of places. It's available off the shelf for OpenWrt in the SQM QoS package, the Linux kernel, IPFire, DD-WRT, and other routers.

- "Bufferbloat" is entering the lexicon. People are speaking about it in blogs and open literature as a known entity, not some voodoo effect that's only a concern to crazy people. The writers don't always get the description or symptoms right, but there is an acknowledgement that something could be better in your home (and everywhere) network connection. (See for example, http://www.internetsociety.org/blog/tech-matters/2015/04/measure-your-bufferbloat-new-browser-based-tool-dslreports ) 

- Speaking of which, the new DSLReports Speed Test has recently stirred things up. Not only do we have an attractive tool that we can recommend to friends, but people are getting a little hot under the collar when they see the crummy performance of the router that they just paid dearly for. See, for example, http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r30051856-Connectivity-Buffer-Bloat

- Now that we've shown that fq_codel conquers bufferbloat, we're finding further optimizations. There's a lot of effort on cake, which promises to bring higher speed processing, and looking into corner cases that can be improved. 

- And of course, Dave Täht is taking on another big project: "Making Wi-Fi Fast".

What else has happened in this year?

Best,

Rich