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This article provides a guide describing how to enable BBR on Ubuntu VPS.
What is BBR?
BBR is a modern TCP congestion control algorithm that provides significant performance improvements for many types of internet connections, especially when traditional algorithms struggle.
Key Features of BBR:
- Optimizes throughput and latency by modeling the network's bottleneck bandwidth and round-trip time (RTT), rather than reacting to packet loss like traditional algorithms (e.g., TCP Reno or Cubic).
- Avoids bufferbloat, which occurs when large buffers introduce high latency in the network.
- Designed for modern networks, including those with high bandwidth-delay products (e.g., satellite or cross-country fiber connections).
How BBR Works:
- Estimates bandwidth and RTT continuously.
- Controls sending rate based on its model, not on packet loss or ACK timing alone.
- Minimizes queuing delay by avoiding overfilling network buffers.
Benefits:
- Higher throughput.
- Lower latency.
- Better performance on lossy or variable connections (e.g., mobile, Wi-Fi, satellite).
Prerequisites
Important: Ensure your kernel is version 4.9 or higher, as BBR was introduced in that version.
This guide assumes the following environment variables:
- Ubuntu VPS with root-equivalent access and one of the following OS versions:
How to Enable BBR on Ubuntu VPS
To enable BBR on Ubuntu VPS, follow the process outlined below:
- Login via SSH as root.
- Run the following command to ensure the kernel version is 4.9 or greater:
uname -r
- Edit the
/etc/sysctl.conffile with your preferred text editor:nano /etc/sysctl.conf
- Add the following lines to the end of the file:
net.core.default_qdisc=fq net.ipv4.tcp_congestion_control=bbr
- Save and exit the file.
- Run the following command:
sysctl -p
-
Verify if BBR is enabled by running the following command:
sysctl net.ipv4.tcp_congestion_control
Expected output:
net.ipv4.tcp_congestion_control = bbr
- BBR is now enabled on your Ubuntu VPS.
Conclusion
You now know how to enable BBR on Ubuntu VPS.
