Internet2 Speed Record Broken

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Internet2 Speed Record Broken

Posted by ryuzaki0 on Friday September 3, 2004 @12:09AM from the about-that-time-again dept.

RevKa writes "InternetNews.com has a report of a new Internet2 land-speed record. The old record was nearly cut in half: the two parties, California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), 'transferred 859 gigabytes of data in less than 17 minutes.' InternetNews goes on to say, 'This record speed of 6.63Gbps is equivalent to transferring a full-length DVD movie in four seconds.' Various scientific purposes were mentioned 'as well as commercial applications from entertainment to oil and gas exploration.' The article ended with hardware specs 'S2io's Xframe 10 GbE server adapter, Cisco 7600 Series Routers, Newisys 4300 servers using AMD Opteron processors, Itanium servers and the 64-bit version of Windows Server 2003.'"

27 of 344 comments (clear)

wow by Anonymous Coward · 2004-09-03 00:11 · Score: 5, Funny

how much bandwidth does doom3 need for network gaming?
1. Re:wow by Lt+Cmdr+Tuvok · 2004-09-03 00:42 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  how much bandwidth does doom3 need for network gaming?
  It is typical of humans to focus primarily on the ways in which new technology can be utilized for 'fun'. Computer games are a particularily ubiquitous example of this phenomenon. Massively networked computers have the potential to become the greatest compound computational device that mankind has ever had access to. If only the proper effort were expended, multiple paralell processing tasks could quite easily be run on this supernetwork. The combined power of this cluster would thus be beneficial to all.
  There is slim hope that this will happen, at least in the foreseeable future, human logic being as flawed as it indeed is.
  
  --
  Without the darkness, how would we recognize the light?
2. Re:wow by AviLazar · 2004-09-03 00:48 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Dude...your Vulcan speak is freaking me out man... ;)
  
  --
  
  I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
3. Re:wow by qray · 2004-09-03 01:27 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  Definitely beneficial! We could take Tribes 2 or Quake, or the like and build entire simulated armies. Instead of actually killing people we could simulate wars and just abide by the results.
  
  And you thought computer games were bad. They may save us from extinction.
4. Re:wow by Illserve · 2004-09-03 01:55 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Oh Cmon.
  
  Giving the average person access to a "compound computational device" would be about the biggest waste of resources in human history.
5. Re:wow by antic · 2004-09-03 02:00 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  "We could take Tribes 2 or Quake, or the like and build entire simulated armies. Instead of actually killing people we could simulate wars and just abide by the results."
  
  Great idea, but only if Diebold gets to orchestrate the simulation...
  
  --
  'Thats they exact same thing a banana wrench monkey.'
6. Re:wow by Not_Wiggins · 2004-09-03 02:15 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Welcome to "Skynet." 8)
  
  --
  Diplomacy is the art of saying, "Nice doggie!" until you can find a rock.
Station wagon full of backup tapes by RollingThunder · 2004-09-03 00:11 · Score: 5, Funny

I think we've well surpassed what a station wagon full of backup tapes can do now....
1. Re:Station wagon full of backup tapes by IWannaBeAnAC · 2004-09-03 00:18 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  I don't think so. One DVD in 4 seconds... how many DVD's can you fit in a stationwagon? A few thousand at least (probably 10's of thousands). Each thousand DVD's gives you an hour to drive to the destination to meet the bandwidth requirements.
  Except, that I don't think you can drive from CERN to CalTech, even with a few days to do it ;) So, you might actually be right! But they still have a tremendous way to go to exceed the bandwidth of a supertanker....
2. Re:Station wagon full of backup tapes by real_smiff · 2004-09-03 00:26 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  supertankers are very slow. they have very bad latency. and do these DVDs have cases? :p
  
  --
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3. Re:Station wagon full of backup tapes by Rostin · 2004-09-03 00:33 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  I think that to be fair, the DVDs would have to be burned at the point of origin and then read at the destination.
4. Re:Station wagon full of backup tapes by Teun · 2004-09-03 01:42 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Won't work, CERN is European DVD region 2, Caltech is North American DVD region 1.
  You can tipically only change this code 5 times before it locks up.
  At least that's what the *IAA's would like us to believe :)
  
  --
  "The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
DVD speed by Gunzour · 2004-09-03 00:12 · Score: 4, Funny

'This record speed of 6.63Gbps is equivalent to transferring a full-length DVD movie in four seconds.'

Yeah, that's the message we want to convey to the MPAA. Everyone knows the Internet2 is all about pirating DVDs.
1. Re:DVD speed by hype7 · 2004-09-03 00:36 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Yeah, that's the message we want to convey to the MPAA. Everyone knows the Internet2 is all about pirating DVDs.
  
  Someone give Jack Valenti a call! His exit interview was linked off here just a few days ago, and he said:
  If everything stayed just as it is right now, we could probably survive it, because even with broadband it takes at least an hour to bring down a movie. But I visited the labs at Caltech, and they're running an experiment called FAST where they can bring down a DVD-quality movie in 5 seconds. The director told me it could be operative in the market in 18 months. Well, my face blanched.
  
  I wanna know what his face does when he finds out we can now do it in under 5 seconds :D It sure couldn't get any uglier than it already is.
  
  Anyway, don't let him quit before someone tells him!
  
  -- james
2. Re:DVD speed by darc · 2004-09-03 01:10 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  >'This record speed of 6.63Gbps is equivalent to transferring a full-length DVD movie in four seconds.'
  
  Sheesh. Whatever happened to the last benchmark unit? Libraries of Congresses? All you kids and your new fangled metric system... DVD units. Back in my day, we were sued by BOOK publishers! Not some crazy eight track industry. Those were some REAL copyrights.
  
  *prattles*
  
  --
  Tired of legitimate data sources? Try UNCYCLOPEDIA
not bad... by Slashbot+Hive-Mind · 2004-09-03 00:12 · Score: 5, Informative

here are some other records (taken from here:

Current Records
IPv6 Category

Single Stream Class: 46,156 terabit-meters per second by a team consisting of members from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and CERN across 10,949 kilometers of network.

Multiple Stream Class: 46,156 terabit-meters per second by a team consisting of members from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and CERN across 10,949 kilometers of network.

IPv4 Category

Single Stream Class: 69,073 terabit-meters per second by a team consisting of members from the SUNET, the organization for the national higher research and education network (NREN) of Sweden, and Sprint across 16,343 kilometers of network.

Multiple Stream Class: 104,528 terabit-meters per second by a team consisting of members from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and CERN by sending 859 gigabytes of data across 15,766 kilometers of network in 1037 seconds (just over 17 minutes), for an average rate of 6.63 gigabits per second.

--

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We are the collective Slashbot HiveMind
In tomorrow's news ... by sawb · 2004-09-03 00:13 · Score: 5, Funny

.... the RIAA and MPAA sue Internet2 as being a potential source for copyright violations by being able to steal a movie in 4 seconds or an album in 0.0003 seconds.

--
I am .CA
Distance is as impressive as speed by erick99 · 2004-09-03 00:18 · Score: 5, Insightful

The distance of approximately 9,800 miles is as impressive as the speed. The article did not mention how many devices (i.e. switches, gateways, etc.) that the data passed through from site to site.
Cheers,
Erick

--
http://www.busyweather.com/
joke, best I could do on the spur of the moment.. by sgtron · 2004-09-03 00:19 · Score: 5, Funny

RMS walks into a bar. Bartender says "Hey, we don't allow hackers in here."

RMS Says "Huh.. that's GNU'S to me."

--
No todo lo que es oro brilla
Interesting point... by Noryungi · 2004-09-03 00:20 · Score: 4, Interesting

This is straight from the article:

Internet2 is fast -- Abilene, a U.S. cross-country backbone network, blasts data at 10Gbps. But transoceanic networking is another story. There are hardware and software issues to overcome, Gray said.

For example, one limiting factor is that the fastest available interface for PCs is the PCIX64 Bus Isolation Extender, which can only handle 7.5Gbps.

So... Let me get this straight... The problem these guys have is that they are using PC to connect to, and send data on, Internet2?

I remember a time when "serious" CS researchers would not touch a PC with a ten-feet pole. Times have changed, indeed.

--
The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
Re:Windows.. by dk.r*nger · 2004-09-03 00:22 · Score: 5, Insightful

Why don't they do this test with an OS like *BSD (or Linux), with its highly-tuned networking stack?

Because Microsoft has a marketing budget and Caltech/CERN don't give a rats ass what software it runs when it's the network infrastructure they're showing off..
Re:This sounds great! by GreyPoopon · 2004-09-03 00:25 · Score: 4, Insightful

Pray, what's the point in adopting a standard today, that most common devices that need internet access (read PCs) can't even dream of attaining?
Remember that this is an experiment, and getting speeds like these into widespread availability is pretty far in the future. By the time such speeds are available, the computing power to take advantage of them probably will be too. If they don't start the research now, we'll have very powerful computers that come to a screeching halt everytime they have to retrieve data from the 'net.

--
GreyPoopon
--
Why is it I can write insightful comments but can't come up with a clever signature?
Err - cancel that by defsdoor · 2004-09-03 00:26 · Score: 5, Funny

Just realised the file was in our proxy cache!!
Achieving equivalent Disk I/O by digid · 2004-09-03 00:32 · Score: 4, Insightful

What kind of equipment is needed to achieve the necessary Disk I/O to match the network throughput?
Give me mass storage of that throughput... by Vo0k · 2004-09-03 00:40 · Score: 4, Insightful

I'm sick of waiting 2 mins to transfer a DIVX movie to a different partition.
For us, average nerds, if we ever got connection that fast, it would still feel slow because of our storage speed. :P

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Wheelchair by Himring · 2004-09-03 00:54 · Score: 5, Funny

Itanium servers and the 64-bit version of Windows Server 2003

This reminds me of another article this week where a guy strapped jet engines to a wheel chair....

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I can beat that! by Mateito · 2004-09-03 02:48 · Score: 4, Funny

Look, here I have a 80GB HD full of... um.. arthouse movies. I pick it up, move it a meter. Takes around half a second. Thus I am moving effectively moving data at 1280Gb/sec.

Beats their record.

Oh? It needs to go over wire. Fine.

Be amazed at my 80GB Harddrive over Cat 5 FLYING FOX!!

Bwahahaha.

--
Norman Cook's Ode to Sl