Low Latency Needs Bigger Focus: BITAG WG

ISPs for decades have mistakenly focused just on higher bandwidth as the route to higher-quality service for end users, while latency was given less focus, misunderstood and mischaracterized, reported the Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group Technical Working Group on Friday. The BITAG WG recommended a focus on tackling latency caused by buffering delays, which often get ignored in latency measurements. Very-low-latency networking technologies are being developed that could eliminate buffering delays and allow creating new classes of applications, but that tech requires changes in endpoint devices and network equipment, it said. There should be more measurement of and reporting on working latency and broadband providers and network equipment developers should deploy mechanisms like active queue management (AQM) to reduce buffering-caused working latency, it said. Application and operating system developers should look at future methods for very-low-latency service delivery, and policymakers and regulators should avoid creating barriers to AQM deployment and to low-latency services and networks, the WG said.