Jason Livingood, VP of Technology Policy & Product at Comcast, is helping build Comcast’s digital Internet system in North America, working on foundational open standards on which the internet is built, and advising on numerous federal policies that affect our everyday use of the internet. Today, his work focuses on low-latency networks.
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Why isn’t more bandwidth the answer to better home internet speed?
An interview with Jason Livingood, VP of Technology Policy & Product at Comcast, on latency and bandwidth.
Hello, Jason! So happy to have you in our remote studio– Jason? Are you there?
Umm, let’s switch to Xfinity WiFi.
Ah, much better! Let’s hop right in.
Why are internet users still experiencing lag when they’ve doubled or tripled their bandwidth?
Livingood: One of the misunderstandings of the internet is that all of these things, how fast things happen, are about bandwidth. And actually, that’s all about latency or delay.
Why is latency such a big factor in our WiFi performance?
Livingood: It’s sort of baked into the way that the internet works today: this first in, first out model. Think of that as data packets going into the network and you have to wait in line until all of those packets for a given flow are done, and then the next flow could go behind that. This can create delays for things you want to happen right away, in real time.
How do users see this impacting their everyday online experience?
Livingood: The things that you notice are real-time traffic oriented. When you interact with your game controller, like moving the joystick or pressing a button, there’s a little bit or a lot of a delay. Or if you’re in that video conference and you notice suddenly the audio and video gets a little bit out of sync. Those are bound by latency.
How is Active Queue Management from Xfinity helping reduce latency?
Livingood: AQM (Active Queue Management) looks at those different packet flows and says, “You’re a responsive flow. Let’s shift you over to [another] lane and make sure that you get on your way with as little delay as possible.” And all of that traffic sort of magically flows together at the same time on the highway.
What do you hope is the reaction for users with technology like AQM and Low Latency DOCSIS?
Livingood: I really hope that their experience is one of amazement, that this application they’ve struggled with in the past now– just works, and the turnaround, the responsiveness of that application is instantaneous, and they just have a “wow” moment.
Looking to the future, how will low latency networks advance our home WiFi experiences?
Livingood: I think there are a lot of new demands that the network of today and tomorrow is facing. Things like interacting with AI agents in real time, like you’re actually interacting with another person sitting across from you, or playing an online game that’s up in the cloud—all of those things are becoming possible with an ultra low latency network.
