RFC 9330: Low Latency, Low Loss, and Scalable Throughput (L4S) Internet Service: Architecture
In plain English — editorial summary, not part of the RFC
This document describes the L4S architecture, which enables Internet applications to achieve low queuing latency, low congestion loss, and scalable throughput control. L4S is based on the insight that the root cause of queuing delay is in the capacity-seeking congestion controllers of senders, not in the queue itself. With the L4S architecture, all Internet applications could (but do not have to) transition away from congestion control algorithms that cause substantial queuing delay and instead adopt a new class of congestion controls that can seek capacity with very little queuing. These are aided by a modified form of Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) from the network. With this new architecture, applications can have both low latency and high throughput. The architecture primarily concerns incremental deployment. It defines mechanisms that allow the new class of L4S congestion controls to coexist with 'Classic' congestion controls in a shared network. The aim is for L4S latency and throughput to be usually much better (and rarely worse) while typically not impacting Classic performance.
Document record
- Document ID
- RFC9330
- Published
- January 2023
- Authors
- B. Briscoe; K. De Schepper; M. Bagnulo; G. White
- Status
- INFORMATIONAL
- Stream
- IETF
- Area
- wit
- Pages
- 36
- Also known as
- —
Topics
Related documents
Ranked automatically by shared keywords, IETF area and stream — not by editorial selection.
- RFC 9331The Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) Protocol for Low Latency, Low Loss, and Scalable Throughput (L4S)Current
January 2023
- RFC 9332Dual-Queue Coupled Active Queue Management (AQM) for Low Latency, Low Loss, and Scalable Throughput (L4S)Current
January 2023
- RFC 9956A Non-Queue-Building Per-Hop Behavior (NQB PHB) for Differentiated ServicesCurrent
May 2026
- RFC 7141Byte and Packet Congestion NotificationCurrent
February 2014
- RFC 9318IAB Workshop Report: Measuring Network Quality for End-UsersCurrent
October 2022
- RFC 7837IPv6 Destination Option for Congestion Exposure (ConEx)Current
May 2016
- RFC 7713Congestion Exposure (ConEx) Concepts, Abstract Mechanism, and RequirementsCurrent
December 2015
- RFC 6660Encoding Three Pre-Congestion Notification (PCN) States in the IP Header Using a Single Diffserv Codepoint (DSCP)Current
July 2012
Also filed under
About this page
The document record above — title, authors, date, status, stream, area, relationships, DOI and errata — is imported verbatim from the public RFC Editor index. The “in plain English” section is editorial: written by The metasystema editorial team, not part of the RFC. Where the two differ, the RFC text governs.
Last checked against the RFC Editor index on . RFCs are never revised after publication; changes are issued as new documents.
Data sources · Editorial policy · Report a correction · What is an RFC?