•    Dr James Martin  (martinengineeringabetterworld@gmail.com,   jmarty@clemson.edu)
•   Dr  James Westall  (westall@yahoo.com,   westall@clemson.edu)
  

• A new generation of Internet applications are emerging, some that involve distributed systems applied perhaps to automated manufacturing,  coordinated autonomous vehicles,  drone swarms,  smart grid cyberphysical control functions,  The current set of TCP/IP protocols applied to the Internet or specific TCP/IP networks currently follow IETF defined 'best practices'.   These networks are not able to meet the low latency and high reliability requirements to support types of emerging applications that support the Nation's critical infrastructure.
  
• A subset of the broad low latency networking topic focuses on developing, evaluating, and deploying a new 'low latency service'.  There are multiple, concurrent activities ongoing in the different networking technology sectors:  core Internet,  DOCSIS-based broadband access networks,  3GPP systems, and 802.11 systems. 
  
• Our broad goal in the area of low latency networking is to develop an incremental set of enhancements to the Internet and underlying set of links that will be supported that collectively reflect a 'Unified Low Latency Service' (ULLS). The goal is ULLS provides an abstract framework that can  be applied to specific network scenarios (Internet, DOCSIS-based cable Internet access,  WiFi or 3GPP Internet access). 
  
• In Year 1 of the  research the scope is limited to low latency  in a general Internet context and in a DOCSIS-based broadband access system.
  
• In an Internet context, this maps to an effort referred to by the IETF as low latency low loss service (L4S).
• L4S might require further low latency enhancements in MAC/PHY layers of DOCSIS, IEEE802.11 and 3GPP  These dependencies are explored in year 2 of the project.
  
• The DOCSIS cable community has introduced 'low latency DOCSIS' (LLD).  Aspects of LLD were in the initial DOCSIS 3.1 specification, updated in a  recent DOCSIS 3.1 standards update, and completed with additional LLD components defined in the DOCSIS 4.0 MAC and PHY specifications.  enhancements.
• The goal of year 1 is to develop a low latency DOCSIS service. As our results might differ from the LLD service that has been introduced by CableLabs and possibly from the IETF's L4S direction.  We refer to our low latency DOCSIS service as a 'Unified Low Latency Service' (ULLS).  This matches our long term research direction exploring 'smart infrastructure' that can adapt at all layers of the stack,  operate over any link, providing a that can operate.
  
•  The design approach will be to start with minimal 'components',  evaluate and illustrate the benefits and the weaknesses.   We anticipate several iterations of this method,  each iteration introduces another 'component' that provides further protocol support targeting low latency.  CableLabs is defining/developing Low Latency DOCSIS through a set of incremental enhancements to DOCSIS 3.1 and DOCSIS 4.0.  However, LLD has dependencies on L4S.  Our strategy is to evaluate the benefits to a L A complete understanding of any LLD service requires this integrated imwhich will be included in the study.
  
• Given the potential cost savings by moving traditional DOCSIS-based cable deployments to an architecture that is similar to the 3GPP's 'cloud RAN' concept,  Year 1 will evaluate the ULLS (which will involve comparisons with L4S and LLD)  in a remote MAC/PHY environment.
  
• In Year 2, we plan on broadening the 'Domain' managed by a DOCSIS-based access service to include home/small office 802.11 links that internetwork a DOCSIS system with WiFi.   Further,  we will explore the design space, including the use of mutliple types of radio access technology, that potentially redefines broadband access.  

The material currently available on this project page includes pages with links to relevant information:

•  CableLabs Specs and white papers
• IETF RFCs
• Prior Clemson Work
• The smallest set possible of 'core' papers and specs
• A set of background papers (with the most helpful in the previous 'core' subdirectory
• FCC-mandates

The IETF RFCs defining L4S:

• tsvwg-14s-arch-08-L4SArchitecture
• tsvwg-aqm-dualq-coupled-13

The CableLabs specs that define 'Low Latency DOCSIS'

• Section 7.7 of the MAC Layer DOCSIS 3.1 spec
• Chapter 7 of the MAC Layer DOCSIS 4.0 spec
  

Working documents:

• Summary of DOCSIS 31 LLD
• Summary of DOCSIS 40 LLD