Ookla's 'North Star' is a better Internet for all

Ookla's Brennen Smith explains that the organization's 'North Star' or main objective is to support quality of experience of network performance for Internet users. We also discuss standards for network performance.

At a Glance

  • Network performance progress in the telecom industry (05:46)
  • Low Latency, Low Loss, and Scalable Throughput (L4S) standard for network performance (08:42)
  • Ookla's main goal is a better Internet experience for all (09:17)

Brennen Smith, VP of technology for Ookla, joins the podcast to discuss latency and network performance challenges in the telecom industry. Prior to Ookla, Smith worked on the FaceTime team at Apple where his team also faced what Smith describes as the challenge of "how to ensure that connections were always maintaining great quality."

Smith explains that Ookla's "North Star" or main objective is to support quality of experience of network performance for Internet users. We also discuss whether 5G has fallen short of promises to improve network latency and what standards have been developed for network performance. 

Click on the caption button for a lightly edited transcript. 

Here are a few topics we covered:

  • Background on Smith, his role at Ookla and Ookla's Speedtest service (02:44)

  • Network performance progress in the telecom industry (05:46)

  • Low Latency, Low Loss, and Scalable Throughput (L4S) standard for network performance (08:42)

  • Ookla's main goal is a better Internet experience for all (09:17)

  • About Ookla's Down Detector alerts (11:39)

  • Is there a discrepancy between promised improvements to latency with 5G and what the technology actually delivers? (17:27)

  • FWA as the "poster child for monetization of 5G" (18:54)

  • More on Ookla's efforts to improve network performance (23:57)

  • Do we have to wait for 6G to see the latency improvements promised with 5G? (30:13)

About the Authors

Kelsey Ziser

Senior Editor, Light Reading

Kelsey is a senior editor at Light Reading, co-host of the Light Reading podcast, and host of the "What's the story?" podcast.

Her interest in the telecom world started with a PR position at Connect2 Communications, which led to a communications role at the FREEDM Systems Center, a smart grid research lab at N.C. State University. There, she orchestrated their webinar program across college campuses and covered research projects such as the center's smart solid-state transformer.

Kelsey enjoys reading four (or 12) books at once, watching movies about space travel, crafting and (hoarding) houseplants.

Kelsey is based in Raleigh, N.C.

Phil Harvey

Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading

Phil Harvey has been a Light Reading writer and editor for more than 18 years combined. He began his second tour as the site's chief editor in April 2020.

His interest in speed and scale means he often covers optical networking and the foundational technologies powering the modern Internet.

Harvey covered networking, Internet infrastructure and dot-com mania in the late 90s for Silicon Valley magazines like UPSIDE and Red Herring before joining Light Reading (for the first time) in late 2000.

After moving to the Republic of Texas, Harvey spent eight years as a contributing tech writer for D CEO magazine, producing columns about tech advances in everything from supercomputing to cellphone recycling.

Harvey is an avid photographer and camera collector – if you accept that compulsive shopping and "collecting" are the same.

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