Tech Musings

Sep 4, 2026 · Backend Development

nginx 1.31 least_time Load Balancing: 9x Latency Drop, Streaming Pitfalls & EMA Internals

This article analyzes nginx 1.31's newly open-sourced least_time load balancing, detailing its EMA-based algorithm, header vs last_byte semantics for streaming, and real-world tests showing 9x latency reduction on heterogeneous backends and 3x difference in streaming scenarios, plus adaptive behavior trade-offs.