Google's BBR algorithm for handling TCP traffic congestion has gained huge ground this week after Google announced integration with Google Cloud, a cloud hosting platform offered by Google to thousands of companies and which serves millions of websites on a daily basis. BBR stands for "Bottleneck Bandwidth and RTT (Round-Trip Time)," and is an algorithm for optimizing how network packets travel through servers in order to avoid jamming certain routes. Google started working on this algorithm as a replacement for Reno and CUBIC, two bandwidth control algorithms developed in the 80s. Work started a few years back, but in September 2016, Google submitted patches to the Linux kernel networking stack in order to add BBR support in modern Linux kernels. Earlier this month, Google engineers presented a technical spec to the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) describing BBR. Other details about the BBR algorithm are also available in two research papers, here and here. BBR will speed up Internet traffic, avoid congestions What the algorithm does is to define new ways for servers to handle TCP connections, the basic communication channel for exchanging data via the Internet. Google says older TCP congestion control systems lead to bottlenecks in Internet traffic because these algorithms were built around the idea of detecting a congestion after it happened, which would be too late to re-route some users. BBR was designed to prevent bottlenecks before they happen, say Google engineers, an important aspect in today's Internet landscape that handles a large number of connections which require real-time data transfers. Traffic congestions break these real-time connections and slow down Internet speeds. BBR roll-out less complicated than some people think Before submitting code changes to the Linux kernel last year, Google tested BBR for its internal network and with public services like YouTube and Google.com. Engineers were able to do so because implementing BBR requires applying changes to the server-side only, with no plugins or special code for existing client software such as browsers, desktop operating systems, smartphones, or local LAN equipment. This week, Google deployed BBR for the Google Cloud platform, home of services such as Spotify, Snapchat, Wix, WP Engine, and more. WP Engine says it enabled BBR for the 500,000 WordPress sites it hosts on its infrastructure. "BBR's throughput can reach as much as 2,700x higher than today's best loss-based congestion control," says Google, while "queueing delays can be 25x lower." Based on internal tests, Google says BBR improved YouTube network throughput by 4% on average globally and by more than 14% in some countries.