We focused on a simple yet powerful idea: If a router can identify the first packet in a flow, it can just prescreen the remaining packets and bypass the routing and queuing stages. This approach would boost throughput, reduce packet loss and delays, allow new capabilities like fairness controls—and while we’re at it, save power, size, and cost. We call our approach flow management.

I wish I’d thought of this when designing the TurnTide Anti-Spam Router. It would have been a lot simpler to implement and maintain and would have allowed us to iterate a lot faster.