Top all-time · #6735
Larry Peterson and Bruce Davie
Personal blog · systemsapproach.substack.comsystemsprogramming
Larry Peterson and Bruce Davie writes Systems Approach, a personal blog at systemsapproach.substack.com about systems and programming. Since 2021, 12 different Hacker News readers have linked it 26 times, most often “QUIC Is Not a TCP Replacement”. The last post was in 2024, but the archive is still widely read.
Too few sampled comments (7) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link this Substack by Larry Peterson and Bruce Davie for networking and transport topics: replacing TCP in datacenters, congestion control, QUIC for RPC, and less commonly discussed networking concepts.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 7 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Larry Peterson and Bruce Davie, authors of "Computer Networks: A Systems Approach" explain the Internet – its technology, architecture, and evolution.
Most-linked posts?
- QUIC Is Not a TCP Replacement3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2022-09-26
- Private 5G: As Easy as Wi-Fi [Some Restrictions May Apply]2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-04-17
- Congestion Control Saved the Internet2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-09-20
What Hacker News says?
This has already been done at scale with HTTP/3 (QUIC), it's just not widely distributed beyond the largest sites & most popular web browsers. gRPC for example is still on multiplexed TCP via HTTP/2, which is "good enough" for many. Though it doesn't really replace TCP, it's just that the predominant requirements have changed (as Ousterhout points out). Bruce Davie has a series of articles on this: https://systemsap…
Comment linking /p/quic-is-not-a-tcp-replacement
on “It's time to replace TCP in the datacenter (2023)”Submitted QUIC Is Not a TCP Replacement as a story · 60 points
HN discussionOsterhout tends to be prescient in his diagnoses, though not his solutions. Eg. His take on scripting languages filling a unique role that wouldn’t be replaced by system languages was pretty accurate; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ousterhout%27s_dichotomy , especially in the AI/ML community these days. His solution, Tcl/Tk, was niche though. On the supposed death of TCP, Bruce Davie posted a more nuanced take: https…
Comment linking /p/quic-is-not-a-tcp-replacement
on “Moving past TCP in the data center, part 2”Submitted Was MPLS Necessary? as a story · 19 points
HN discussionThis is a syndicated from the upstream blog, which gets content from Bruce and Larry earlier: https://systemsapproach.substack.com/p/how-congestion-contro...
Comment linking /p/how-congestion-control-saved-the
on “TCP's congestion control saved the internet”Submitted Was MPLS Traffic Engineering Worthwhile? as a story · 16 points
HN discussionThey also have a newsletter covering Networking concepts that are not commonly discussed: https://systemsapproach.substack.com/archive
Comment linking /archive
on “High Performance Browser Networking”Submitted Magma: An open source implementation of a mobile core network as a story · 10 points
HN discussionThanks, yes I'm subscribed to the newsletter as well, what a surprise coincident when posting about open 5G on HN and receiving article exactly in the same subject later on the same day. The direct link for the substack article is here: https://systemsapproach.substack.com/p/private-5g-as-easy-as... Currently New York and Dublin are also using open source private 5G networks for their Smart City initiative: https://…
Comment linking /p/private-5g-as-easy-as-wi-fi
on “Build and Deploy 5G Network with Open-Source Software and Off-the-Shelf Hardware”Submitted Why APIs Matter as a story · 4 points
HN discussionThere is also a substack: https://systemsapproach.substack.com/ This weeks post covers the same thing as this post - how easy/difficult is it to actually set up a private 5G network compared to a similar WiFi deployment.
Comment linking /
on “Build and Deploy 5G Network with Open-Source Software and Off-the-Shelf Hardware”Submitted Boundary Conditions: A Systems Approach as a story · 3 points
HN discussionPart of what we're arguing in this article is that there is no good answer today because of the assumption that TCP was good enough. Homa is challenging that assumption (as many others have tried before). My view is that if you want something better than TCP for RPC today, QUIC is the best thing available, as discussed here: https://systemsapproach.substack.com/p/quic-is-not-a-tcp-rep... What you run over that for y…
Comment linking /p/quic-is-not-a-tcp-replacement
on “It's TCP vs. RPC All over Again”Submitted 60 Years of Networking as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Escape from Big Publishing: How Open Source Provided the Alternative Path as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Omission by Design as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Network virtualization revisited: The power of illusions created in software as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Democratizing 5G: Bringing technology to a wider audience as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Congestion Control Saved the Internet as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Challenge of East-West Traffic as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted How SDN Came to the Wide Area as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Private 5G: As Easy as Wi-Fi [Some Restrictions May Apply] as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted RPC vs. TCP (Redux) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted It's TCP vs. RPC All over Again as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Decentralization Strikes Back as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
