Heavy Networking 489: Is BBR Too Unfair An Algorithm For The Internet?

BBR is a congestion control algorithm (CCA) that's growing in use on the Internet. However, a design element in BBR starves competing CCAs for bandwidth on shared links, allowing BBR to consume more than its fair share. On today's Heavy Networking we speak with researchers at Carnegie Mellon University who have measured BBR's unfairness. We discuss the research, learn how BBR differs from legacy algorithms such as Cubic and Reno, and explore impacts to the Internet. Our guests are Ranysha Ware, Ph.D. student; and Justine Sherry, Associate Professor of Computer Science.