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Net Traffic Shocks Mimic Earthquakes

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the aftershocks-and-all dept.

belphegor writes "Technology Research News is running an article describing research linking the similarties between Earthquakes and Internet traffic. By pinging hosts across the network, researchers 'were able to measure frequent changes in Internet congestion...results showed that the Internet, like the earth's network of faults, exhibits criticality -- a condition of sudden and drastic change. "Sudden drastic congestion leads to a large value of the round trip time of the ping signal, which is identified with a main shock," said Abe. The researchers referred to these sudden, drastic traffic changes as Internetquakes.' They also saw 'aftershocks' that can be mathematically described in a similar manner to the seismic ones more familiar to many Californians."

3 of 157 comments (clear)

  1. The name for this phenomenon? by viper21 · · Score: 4, Funny

    The Slashdot Effect.

    I'm surprised that it isn't mentioned in the article. They are probably trying to patent it, I'm sure.

    -S

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    We Apprentice Developers and Designers
  2. That explains a lot by r_j_prahad · · Score: 4, Funny

    Our company's webmaster has managed to exactly duplicate the San Andreas fault then. That box is shakier than California... oops, here comes another tremor now. Yup, reduced to rubble one more time.

    One of these days I'll find some way to get the URL posted to Slashdot and I can see if computers really do burst into flame and shoot out showers of sparks like on the old Star Trek....

  3. NEWSFLASH... by thrillbert · · Score: 5, Funny

    Internet, Aug. 27, 2002 - The Technology Research News (www.trnmag.com), which recently wrote an article on how Net Traffic mimics earthquakes, experienced an earthquake that shattered their networks, and brought down their servers. The earthquake measure 8.4 on the CmdrTaco TEBCF scale (time elapsed before complete failure).

    News Correspondent Kimberly Patch had this to say via her cell phone connection: "one minute we're up and working, next thing you know everything just went crazy. People were screaming and running out of the building. I tried to keep calm, but at one point, knowing the magnitude of things, I paniced and ran out of the building screaming bloody murder!"

    A representative from OSDN was quoted as saying: "heh.. heh.. umm.. heh heh.. nice huh?".

    Calls to slashdot.org were not immediately returned.

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    (Score: +1 Funny, +1 Interesting, +1 Too Much Time on Hands)