Slashdot Mirror


Net Speed Record Smashed

BrianWCarver writes "The BBC is reporting that scientists have set a new internet speed record by transferring 6.7 gigabytes of data (the equivalent of 4 hours of DVD-quality movies) across 10,978 kilometres (6,800 miles), from Sunnyvale in the US to Amsterdam in Holland, in less than one minute. Average speed: more than 923 megabits per second, or more than 3,500 times faster than a typical home broadband connection. The data was sent across the Internet2 network. Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (Slac) Computer Services participated in the record-breaking event. Slac has an interest in such high-speed transfers as they have accumulated the largest known database in the world, which grows at one terabyte per day."

15 of 388 comments (clear)

  1. First Post by benna · · Score: 5, Funny

    If I have anything to do with it my broadband will NOT be 3500 times slower.....I'm moving to amsterdam!

    --
    "It is not how things are in the world that is mystical, but that it exists." -Ludwig Wittgenstein
  2. What media were they writing to? by Ponderoid · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'd like to know what media they used that could write that much information in 1 minute.

    1. Re:What media were they writing to? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      I back my hard drives up to /dev/null nightly. It only takes about 2.5 seconds.

    2. Re:What media were they writing to? by MarcQuadra · · Score: 5, Funny

      Do you restore from /dev/zero or /dev/random? Zero is faster, but I heard random is more secure.

      --
      "Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
  3. Welcome to the future. by Melchior_of_wg · · Score: 5, Funny

    You just got to love how all internet trafic of today is measured in movies. ;)

  4. oops by new+death+barbie · · Score: 5, Funny
    the equivalent of 4 hours of DVD-quality movies


    ahh, it actually was 4 hours of DVD-quality movies...

    --

    It's supposed to be completely automatic, but actually you have to press this button.

  5. great by Stanley+Feinbaum · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The best part is since internet2 is a private network, no mainstream users are going to benefit from it's incredible speed. Hooray!

    --

    Stanley Feinbaum, professional journalist and master debater! God bless the USA!

    1. Re:great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      actually there are over 200 universities and labs that use internet2. so if you don't count those several million people, then you are right.

  6. Internet2? by gordyf · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They transferred all this data over Internet2 and the writeup says "...set a new internet speed record ...". Isn't that cheating?

    That's like saying "Our new car can go 6000 mph! (on a conveyer belt moving at 5950 mph).

    1. Re:Internet2? by kfg · · Score: 5, Funny

      Hell, my car goes faster than that just sitting in the garage. I know, I timed it, from Apollo 11.

      KFG

  7. RIAA and MPAA Sues Internet2! by radpole · · Score: 5, Funny

    Tommorrows headline on slashdot?

    If they are using that much bandwidth they must be pirating something.

  8. Pfft. That's nothing. by colonel · · Score: 5, Funny

    I've said that no transmission method of bandwidth will ever exceed, in my lifetime, the bandwidth of a station wagon full of backup tapes.

    "A simple calculation will make this point clear. An industry standard 8mm video tape (e.g. Exabyte) can hold 7 Gigabytes. a box 50x50x50 cm can hold about 1000 of these tapes, for a total apacity of 7000 Gigabytes. A box of tapes can be delivered anywhere in the US in 24 hours by Federal Express and other companies. The ffective bandwidth of this transmission is 56,000 gigabits/86400 sec or 648 Gbps, which is 1000 times better than the high-speed version of ATM (622 Mbps). If the destination if only an hour away by road, the bandwidth is increased to over 15Gbps."
    -- A. Tanenbaum, "Computer Networks, Third Edition"

  9. Re:Umm... That's not so fast.. by Twirlip+of+the+Mists · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Yes, OC192 is faster, but I've never heard of a single computer being able to push that much data that fast over a single connection.

    A few years ago SGI did a test where they leased a piece of cross-country dark fibre for a day and ran GSN over it. That's a single connection-- using ST, not TCP-- from one computer to another computer, RAM to RAM. They pegged over 790 MB/s (that's a big B, as in megabytes per second), and sustained it for hours. And, just to reiterate, this was from one computer to another computer, without any fancy-schmancy multiplexing or anything. This was the ST equivalent of a single FTP transfer.

    I can't find any documentation of this test on the web, but I saw it with mine own eyes. One end of the connection was in Herndon, VA, (where I was) and the other was out west someplace.

    The SLAC test did 900+ Mb/s over a switched network, which is darned impressive. It's undoubtedly a record for a public switched connection. But don't go thinking it's an absolute land speed record or anything like that.

    --

    I write in my journal
  10. Re:Pfft. That's nothing. by planckscale · · Score: 5, Funny
    Sure, you can get it there, but once it's there you have to start the restore process...

    --
    Namaste
  11. No big deal. Canada has much faster network by jonbnews · · Score: 5, Informative
    Canada's CA*NET3 network can transmit the Library of Congress (LOC) in one second. It takes Internet2 a minute to do that. And the Canadian network has been deployed and operational for several years.

    Article here: http://chronicle.com/free/v45/i47/47a02101.htm.