Overcoming Fairness and Latency Challenges in BBR With an Adaptive Delay Detection

In 2016, Google introduced a new congestion control algorithm called Bottleneck Bandwidth and Round-trip propagation time (BBR). BBR aims to set the data-sending rate of flows to operate at an optimal operating point—maximizing throughput, minimizing delay, and reducing packet loss. Howev...

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Main Authors: Zewei Han, Go Hasegawa
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2025-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
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Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10902074/
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author Zewei Han
Go Hasegawa
author_facet Zewei Han
Go Hasegawa
author_sort Zewei Han
collection DOAJ
description In 2016, Google introduced a new congestion control algorithm called Bottleneck Bandwidth and Round-trip propagation time (BBR). BBR aims to set the data-sending rate of flows to operate at an optimal operating point—maximizing throughput, minimizing delay, and reducing packet loss. However, when multiple BBR flows share a bottleneck link with a deep buffer, they often deviate from the optimal point, resulting in significant queuing delays, and serious fairness issues especially when flows with different RTTs are present. Existing methods to enhance BBR’s performance typically cap the sending rates of longer RTT flows to improve fairness and reduce latency, but these do not tackle the fundamental problem. In this paper, we introduce a modification to BBR, termed BBR Refined (BBR-R), which enhances throughput fairness among diverse RTT flows and lowers queuing delays. By targeting the underlying causes of unfairness, BBR-R adaptively adjusts delay detection intervals to clear queues in the bottleneck link buffer while preserving link utilization. Our experimental results show that BBR-R enhances RTT fairness by 30% over BBR and other variants, and reduces latency by 30% compared to the original BBR.
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spelling doaj-art-cd13f297a48345b3bd5d2b9242cda3482025-08-20T02:02:51ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362025-01-0113373183732710.1109/ACCESS.2025.354508810902074Overcoming Fairness and Latency Challenges in BBR With an Adaptive Delay DetectionZewei Han0https://orcid.org/0009-0007-6987-5859Go Hasegawa1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2092-1072Graduate School of Information Sciences, Tohoku University, Sendai, Miyagi, JapanResearch Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University, Sendai, Miyagi, JapanIn 2016, Google introduced a new congestion control algorithm called Bottleneck Bandwidth and Round-trip propagation time (BBR). BBR aims to set the data-sending rate of flows to operate at an optimal operating point—maximizing throughput, minimizing delay, and reducing packet loss. However, when multiple BBR flows share a bottleneck link with a deep buffer, they often deviate from the optimal point, resulting in significant queuing delays, and serious fairness issues especially when flows with different RTTs are present. Existing methods to enhance BBR’s performance typically cap the sending rates of longer RTT flows to improve fairness and reduce latency, but these do not tackle the fundamental problem. In this paper, we introduce a modification to BBR, termed BBR Refined (BBR-R), which enhances throughput fairness among diverse RTT flows and lowers queuing delays. By targeting the underlying causes of unfairness, BBR-R adaptively adjusts delay detection intervals to clear queues in the bottleneck link buffer while preserving link utilization. Our experimental results show that BBR-R enhances RTT fairness by 30% over BBR and other variants, and reduces latency by 30% compared to the original BBR.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10902074/Congestion control algorithmbandwidth-delay productbottleneck bandwidth and round-trip propagation time (BBR)throughput fairnessround trip time (RTT)bufferbloat problem
spellingShingle Zewei Han
Go Hasegawa
Overcoming Fairness and Latency Challenges in BBR With an Adaptive Delay Detection
IEEE Access
Congestion control algorithm
bandwidth-delay product
bottleneck bandwidth and round-trip propagation time (BBR)
throughput fairness
round trip time (RTT)
bufferbloat problem
title Overcoming Fairness and Latency Challenges in BBR With an Adaptive Delay Detection
title_full Overcoming Fairness and Latency Challenges in BBR With an Adaptive Delay Detection
title_fullStr Overcoming Fairness and Latency Challenges in BBR With an Adaptive Delay Detection
title_full_unstemmed Overcoming Fairness and Latency Challenges in BBR With an Adaptive Delay Detection
title_short Overcoming Fairness and Latency Challenges in BBR With an Adaptive Delay Detection
title_sort overcoming fairness and latency challenges in bbr with an adaptive delay detection
topic Congestion control algorithm
bandwidth-delay product
bottleneck bandwidth and round-trip propagation time (BBR)
throughput fairness
round trip time (RTT)
bufferbloat problem
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10902074/
work_keys_str_mv AT zeweihan overcomingfairnessandlatencychallengesinbbrwithanadaptivedelaydetection
AT gohasegawa overcomingfairnessandlatencychallengesinbbrwithanadaptivedelaydetection