Cajun Broadband Improves Latency for Gamers & Live Streamers
Since 2017, Cajun Broadband has been on a mission to become Louisiana's go-to internet provider for gamers and streamers who demand top-tier performance. Facing network congestion and rising latency during peak hours, Cajun partnered with Bequant to gain deeper network visibility and enhance customer Quality of Experience (QoE). By integrating Bequant's BQN optimization platform with their Fibersmith Vision™ billing system, Cajun achieved measurable improvements—including an 83% reduction in latency and more consistent performance across their subscriber base.
Background & Challenge
Since 2017, Cajun Broadband has been on a mission to become Louisiana's go-to internet provider for gamers and streamers who demand top-tier performance. Serving St. Martin, Lafayette, Vermilion, and Iberia Parishes, the company delivers high-speed connectivity that's built for locals, by locals. As gaming and interactive applications continue to grow across the region, Cajun Broadband is committed to giving customers smoother gameplay, quicker response times, and a more reliable online experience.
However, as usage increased and more households adopted bandwidth-heavy applications, Cajun Broadband—like many regional ISPs—encountered challenges with network congestion and rising latency during peak hours. These performance hurdles created inconsistent experiences for their growing gamer and streamer customer base. Determined to overcome these obstacles, Cajun Broadband set out to enhance responsiveness across their network and elevate the quality of experience for their most demanding users.
Objectives
Cajun Broadband's project goals centered on visibility, optimization, and integration:
- Identify key network performance indicators (KPIs):
- Review Overall Historic Network Latency through existing NMS tool (see below)
- Review Overall Historic Retransmissions through existing NMS tool
- Install BQN QoE upstream the existing competitor shaper/NMS tool
- Integrate Bequant's BQN software with the Fibersmith Vision™ billing system, ensuring the network optimization engine recognizes subscriber profiles and rate plans for more enhanced optimization
The images below are from Cajun's NMS showing pre-Bequant latency across the network.
The Solution
Cajun Broadband deployed the Bequant BQN QoE appliance at the core of its network, enabling both TCP Optimization (TCPO) and Active Congestion Management (ACM).
- Data Collection: Cajun Broadband gathered three days of baseline KPI data, including latency, retransmissions, throughput, and congestion levels.
- Optimization Phase: Bequant's TCPO and ACM technologies were activated, automatically adapting to network conditions and optimizing traffic flow.
- Performance Review: KPI data before and after optimization was compared to evaluate improvements. (see Results below)
- Billing Integration: The Fibersmith Vision™ integration was enabled, allowing the BQN to automatically import subscriber information—IP addresses, IDs, and rate plans.
- Policy Configuration: Default subscriber flow and application shaping were applied, ensuring rate-appropriate optimization per user.
- Final Review & Go-live.
Results
Results showed a significant reduction in latency and improved consistency across subscribers.
- Average latency reduced from a highpoint of 107ms down to an average low of 10ms – substantially appreciated by gamers.
- TCP retransmissions decreased from a high of 6.6% to now an average low of 0.32%
- Access network congestion was cut in half: from 10-15% before BQN down to 5-7% now.
- Overall TCP downlink throughput increased by 15%.
(red dashed line marks BQN activation)
TCP Optimization Results
Of all TCP throughput improvements, two vital applications on the Cajun Broadband network were dramatically enhanced: PlayStation™ throughput accelerated by over 100% and Xbox™ Live traffic by over 50%.
Network Visibility & DPI
With per-subscriber network KPI metrics, Cajun was able to easily identify subscribers with weak KPIs: say, congestion caused by in-home Wi-Fi routers on their FTTH segments. The result: faster issue resolution and more proactive support.
Improvements to Infrastructure
After deploying BQN, Cajun also benefitted from improvements across their wireless sectors. The graph below shows much better latency grades, as reported by Cajun's existing NMS.
At a Glance
Cajun Broadband, partnered with Bequant to gain deeper visibility into network performance and enhance customer Quality of Experience (QoE). By integrating Bequant's BQN optimization platform with their Fibersmith Vision™ billing system, Cajun Broadband achieved measurable network improvements—including an 83% reduction in latency and more consistent customer performance across their subscriber base.
"It's like swapping a Chevy for a Ferrari. I now have the granular control to do what I want. This is effing awesome!"
Jimmy Lewis, Owner, Cajun Broadband
Lessons Learned
- Even with advanced fiber & wireless access technology, end-user QoE depends on holistic network visibility and traffic optimization.
- Integrating billing data with network intelligence creates powerful, subscriber-aware insights.
- A short trial can produce tangible network improvements, helping ISPs make data-driven decisions about scaling QoE solutions.