In general I feel a programmable packet pacing approach is the right way forward for the internet as a whole. It lends itself more easily and accurately to offloading in an age where it is difficult to do anything sane within a ms on the host cpu, especially in virtualized environments, in the enormous dynamic range of kbits/ms to gbits/ms between host an potential recipient [1] So considerations about what is easier to offload moving forward vs central cpu costs should be in this conversation. [1] I'm kind of on a campaign to get people to stop thinking about mbits/sec and about intervals well below human perception, thus, gbits/ms - or packets/ns!
