August 31, 2007
Internet Pipes Can't Keep up in YouTube Age
A study warns that investment in network capacity may not keep up with increasing demands for bandwidth. PC World reports.
"If the network that carries Internet traffic were a highway, it would be as if every car owner, "rushed out and traded in their cars for massive 20-wheel trucks," stated the report from University of California-San Diego Professor Michael Kleeman, a senior fellow at the USC Annenberg Center for Communication.
In the report, titled "Point of Disconnect," Kleeman writes that there needs to be a massive expansion of network capacity in the United States, and even though network operators are making those investments, it still may not be enough to keep up with demand.
The report also calls for greater use of compression technology, especially for large video files, to reduce demands on the network. Kleeman noted that the number of new videos uploaded daily to the popular video-sharing Web site YouTube jumped to 65,000 at the beginning of this year from 20,000 at the beginning of 2006, and that one minute of video requires 10 times as much bandwidth as a voice phone call.
The USC study is one of a number of academic endeavors to rethink the Internet.
"The Internet needs a massive investment to keep up with the demands of YouTube fans, billions of e-mails and wireless access, a university study states.
Click here for related links to article raising bandwidth concerns
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