Comment HFSC to the rescue (Score 1) 147
bufferbloat is definitely still a thing.
I've been using this script for years to drop packets early to improve latency. it uses HFSC (built into linux since forever) and works great:
https://gist.github.com/eqhmco...
from that:
Congestion avoidance algorithms (such as those found in TCP) do a great job of allowing network endpoints to negotiate transfer rates that maximize a link's bandwidth usage without unduly penalizing any particular stream. This allows bulk transfer streams to use the maximum available bandwidth without affecting the latency of non-bulk (e.g. interactive) streams.
In other words, TCP lets you have your cake and eat it too -- both fast downloads and low latency all at the same time.
However, this only works if TCP's afore-mentioned congestion avoidance algorithms actually kick in. The most reliable method of signaling congestion is to drop packets. (There are other ways, such as ECN, but unfortunately they're still not in wide use.)
Dropping packets to make the network work better is kinda counter-intuitive. But, that's how TCP works. And if you take advantage of that, you can make TCP work great.