Symptoms of bufferbloat-induced congestion
Once a network is congested, various service protocols (statistically insignificant in terms of additional network load, but mission-critical) can’t do their jobs. Here are some examples
DNS - adding hundreds of ms of latencies to turning a website into an IP address is not good. With a typical web page doing dozens, even hundreds of DNS lookups, DNS not getting through in a timely fashion results in vastly slower browsing.
NTP - the network time protocol - relies on somewhat timely delivery of packets in order to keep your computer’s clock accurate. Lots of things rely on accurate timekeeping.
ARP - the address resolution protocol - also relies on timely resolution in order to even find other devices on your network.
DHCP - if these packets are lost or excessively delayed, machines can’t get on the network in the first place.
Routing - many routing protocols depend on packet drops as a way of monitoring network health and are time sensitive.
VOIP - needs about a single packet per 10ms flow in order to be good, and less than 30ms jitter.
Gamers will get fragged a lot more often with latencies above their twitch factor.
IPv6 relies on even more specialized packet types for autoconfiguration, e.g. the equivalent of ARP
Encapsulated packets (VPNs, X11 over ssh, IPv6 over 6rd/6to4) also suffer.
#networking #Bufferbloat