Nokia and Vodafone have recently achieved a significant milestone in internet technology, claiming to have conducted the world’s first trial of L4S technology over an end-to-end PON (Passive Optical Network). This breakthrough, they assert, holds the potential to eradicate lag during activities such as gaming and video calls.
The trial, orchestrated by Nokia’s research division, Nokia Bell Labs, and Vodafone’s Fixed Access Center of Excellence, took place in Vodafone’s lab located in Newbury. L4S technology, which stands for Low Latency, Low Loss, Scalable throughput, is heralded as a novel Internet standard endorsed by the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force). It aims to ensure networks can maintain both high throughput and low latency simultaneously.
The crux of L4S lies in its ability to address queuing delays, a common occurrence where packets idle in network buffers. By mitigating these delays, L4S purportedly smoothens out latency fluctuations without compromising network speeds, potentially revolutionizing experiences in video conferencing and gaming.
During the trial, conducted on a fixed access network built with Nokia infrastructure, the results were promising. Latency reportedly plummeted from 550 milliseconds to a mere 12 milliseconds when accessing internet sites. When utilizing an Ethernet cable instead of WiFi, latency further reduced to a remarkable 1.05 milliseconds.
Azimeh Sefidcon, Head of Network Systems and Security Research at Bell Labs, expressed optimism about L4S’s capabilities, envisioning seamless operations for various real-time applications such as video conferencing and cloud gaming. Gavin Young, Head of Fixed Access Centre of Excellence at Vodafone, emphasized the technology’s potential to provide customers with faster, more responsive internet services, even during peak usage times.
While the focus of this trial was on PON technology, the versatility of L4S extends beyond it. According to the release, L4S can be implemented across various access technologies, wireless or wired, offering improvements in latency-dependent applications like remote surgery and connected autonomous vehicles.
In essence, the collaboration between Nokia and Vodafone marks a significant step towards a lag-free internet experience, heralding a new era of connectivity with vast implications across multiple sectors.
