How CableLabs’ Technologies Are Reducing Latency and Improving Broadband Reliability

If you work from home, you likely rely on your broadband network, and we have good news for you! CableLabs has been working on reducing latency in the network. Latency is of increasing importance to broadband subscribers that work from home. In fact, these subscribers are not only aware of network latency, they also rank latency as one of the top considerations in making broadband-purchasing decisions.

What is latency? Latency is the lag between data being sent and received from your device and the greater internet. It occasionally happens because of your application data getting slowed in the line or queue in and out of your home network, like a line of shoppers trying to get through a revolving door on Black Friday. We often talk about its impact on gamers, however people working from home also benefit from a highly responsive network. It impacts productivity, and when you’re working, time is money.

What have we done to improve latency? We’ve worked with leading technology companies to ensure your end-user experiences take advantage of Low Latency, Low Loss Scalable Throughput (L4S), a new internet standard, being integrated into your devices and applications. CableLabs member companies are beginning to deploy Low Latency DOCSIS (LLD), which supports L4S with additional capabilities that improve latency performance. Our recent interops included Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Netflix, Nvidia and other technology and ecosystem leaders. Thanks to the collaboration of industry leaders, we are building the internet of the future, and it’s coming home to work for you.

— John Feland, Principal Strategist at CableLabs