Subject: [aqm] Document Action: 'PIE: A Lightweight Control Scheme To Address the Bufferbloat Problem' to Experimental RFC (draft-ietf-aqm-pie-10.txt)

From: The IESG <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2016 10:57:23 -0700

The IESG has approved the following document:
- 'PIE: A Lightweight Control Scheme To Address the Bufferbloat Problem'
  (draft-ietf-aqm-pie-10.txt) as Experimental RFC

This document is the product of the Active Queue Management and Packet
Scheduling Working Group.

The IESG contact persons are Mirja Kühlewind and Spencer Dawkins.

A URL of this Internet Draft is:
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-aqm-pie/

Technical Summary

   Bufferbloat is a phenomenon where excess buffers in the network cause
   high latency and jitter. As more and more interactive applications
   (e.g. voice over IP, real time video streaming and financial
   transactions) run in the Internet, high latency and jitter degrade
   application performance. There is a pressing need to design
   intelligent queue management schemes that can control latency and
   jitter; and hence provide desirable quality of service to users. 

   This document presents a lightweight active queue management design,
   called PIE (Proportional Integral controller Enhanced), that can
   effectively control the average queueing latency to a target value.
   Simulation results, theoretical analysis and Linux testbed results
   have shown that PIE can ensure low latency and achieve high link
   utilization under various congestion situations. The design does not
   require per-packet timestamp, so it incurs very small overhead and is
   simple enough to implement in both hardware and software. 

Working Group Summary

   There were no matters of large controversy, though there have been some criticisms of PIE.  
   The IPR did not seem to be a blocking point for anyone, but some  participants prefered 
   algorithms free of IPR.  There are multiple algorithms that were proposed to the AQM 
   working group, and there are still some developing.  Some aspects of the PIE design were 
   critiqued, and there are some identified matters for future research, but there did not seem 
   to be any disagreement that this is useful to publish at this time.  It is understood that this 
   does not block other algorithms or improvements from happening.  The critical reviews are 
   useful in understanding the differences with other algorithms, and making improvements 
   to PIE while in experimental stage.

Document Quality

   Yes, there are multiple existing implementations, including in simulations, Linux, FreeBSD, 
   and some may be based on description in the DOCSIS specification.  All of the 
   implementation experience was helpful in improving the document quality and clarity when 
   describing the algorithm.  A very thorough technical review was done by Bob Briscoe, and 
   posted as a complete document itself.

Personnel

   Wesley Eddy ([email-masked]) is the document shepherd, and Mirja Kühlewind ([email-masked]) is the AD.