Cloudflare Inc. (NYSE:NET) CTO Dane Knecht proposed that his company and Space Exploration Technologies Corp.’s (NASDAQ:SPCX) Starlink jointly rethink a core layer of internet networking for low-Earth-orbit satellites, prompting Elon Musk to send the idea to Starlink’s team.
Cloudflare CTO Targets LEO Congestion Control Challenge
"Bandwidth is half of it. Most congestion control still assumes a stable path and a stable RTT. LEO is neither," Knecht wrote in an X post on Monday. "Area needs innovation all the way down the stack. @Cloudflare and @Starlink should be building that together."
Musk replied, "Sent your 𝕏 post to @Starlink."
Congestion-control algorithms regulate how quickly devices send data by reacting to signals such as packet loss and round-trip time, or RTT. Cloudflare says CUBIC, the default controller in its open-source QUIC implementation quiche, governs how connections probe available bandwidth and back off when networks appear congested.
That becomes harder in orbit. Research on LEO networks has found that moving satellites, handovers and changing routes can create abrupt RTT shifts and non-congestion-related losses that existing algorithms may misread, reducing throughput or increasing latency. A 2026 experimental study found current approaches still face trade-offs between throughput, delay and retransmissions on Starlink-like networks.
Starlink Growth Raises Network Performance Stakes
The proposal arrives as Starlink scales rapidly. SpaceX reported 12 million subscribers at the end of the second quarter, double the year-earlier figure. Cloudflare found Starlink traffic passing through its network increased 2.3-fold during 2025.
SpaceX has also been pushing the physical network harder. Musk recently said Starlink can provide reliable 10-gigabit-per-second symmetric connectivity globally, while proposed Gen3 satellites could deliver more than 10 times the bandwidth of V2 spacecraft and orbit lower to cut latency.
Starlink said its U.S. network delivered median peak-hour latency of 25.7 milliseconds and about 200 Mbps median peak-hour download speeds as of Ju;y 2025, with beam-switching availability above 99.9%.
Software Changes Could Unlock More Capacity
Knecht’s proposal targets the software layer beneath those capacity gains. Cloudflare has spent years tuning TCP and QUIC performance across its network, while Starlink continuously shifts users among fast-moving satellites. Tailoring congestion control to those dynamics could improve responsiveness and make better use of available bandwidth without simply adding capacity.
Benzinga Edge Rankings show SpaceX stock fails to provide a favorable price trend in the Short, Medium and Long term.
Price Action: SpaceX shares were up 3.09% to $137.22 during pre-market trading on Monday.
Photo courtesy: Piotr Swat / Shutterstock
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