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Bufferbloat is a cause of high latency and jitter in packet-switched networks caused by excess buffering of packets. Bufferbloat can also cause packet delay variation (also known as jitter), as well as reduce the overall network throughput. When a router or switch is configured to use excessively large buffers, even very high-speed networks can become practically unusable for many interactive applications like voice over IP (VoIP), audio streaming, online gaming, and even ordinary web browsing.
Some communications equipment manufacturers designed unnecessarily large buffers into some of their network products. In such equipment, bufferbloat occurs when a network link becomes congested, causing packets to become queued for long periods in these oversized buffers. In a first-in first-out queuing system, overly large buffers result in longer queues and higher latency, and do not improve network throughput. It can also be induced by specific slow-speed connections hindering the on-time delivery of other packets.
The bufferbloat phenomenon was described as early as 1985.[1] It gained more widespread attention starting in 2009.[2]
According to some sources the most frequent cause of high latency ("lag") in online video games is local home network bufferbloat. High latency can render modern online gaming impossible.[3]
- ^ "On Packet Switches with Infinite Storage". December 31, 1985.
- ^ van Beijnum, Iljitsch (January 7, 2011). "Understanding Bufferbloat and the Network Buffer Arms Race". Ars Technica. Retrieved November 12, 2011.
- ^ "Bufferbloat: Dark Buffers in the Internet: Networks without effective AQM may again be vulnerable to congestion collapse". Queue. doi:10.1145/2063166.2071893. S2CID 18820360.