Comcast has announced that in some cities in the United States, Xfinity internet service has started to offer its customers L4S, a new delay reduction technology. The company plans to offer this feature to all Xfinity internet customers in the future.

How does technology work?

Comcast says it reduces the delay by 78 %in its tests with L4S technology. L4S, which means “low delay, low loss, scalable efficiency”, is a technology that assigns signs to internet traffic packages. These signs show when traffic is blocked from point A to point B, allowing the devices at both ends to adapt to this problem.

Although this feature does not increase the download and loading speeds, it can make a big difference by providing smarter traffic guidance and management on the client and host side. Comcast says that low delay improvements will start at the beginning of the applications under the headings of many games in FaceTime, GeForce Now, Steam, and meta’s mixed reality. Apple, Nvidia and Valve collaborated with Comcast to test technology and Apple has added L4S support to its devices since iOS 17 and MacOS Sonoma.

What Internet service providers call “QOS” or service quality often occur in a router or data center. Here, the packages are sorted according to the specific and delay sensitivity to ensure that real -time game and video flow work as intended. However, not all QOS applications are of the same quality and are generally considered as an optional setting in routers.

Comcast does something similar in L4S technology, but this method is more advanced and allows more dynamic adjustments even within certain types of traffic. Although detailed tests on how L4S work in practice has not yet been performed, it is critical to reduce delay for online searches and games, especially for game flow, for a stable and reliable experience.