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Microwave Comms Betwen Population Centers Could Be Key To Easing Internet Bottlenecks

Posted by timothy on from the you'll-get-cancer-and-be-well-done dept.

itwbennett writes: Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Duke University recently looked at the main causes of Internet latency and what it would take to achieve speed-of-light performance. The first part of the paper, titled Towards a Speed of Light Internet, is devoted to finding out where the slowdowns are coming from. They found that the bulk of the delay comes from the latency of the underlying infrastructure, which works in a multiplicative way by affecting each step in the request. The second part of the paper proposes what turns out to be a relatively cheap and potentially doable solution to bring Internet speeds close to the speed of light for the vast majority of us. The authors propose creating a network that would connect major population centers using microwave networks.

10 of 221 comments (clear)

  1. These wouldn't be the microwave comms... by Viol8 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ... that were slowly dismantled in the 90s because fibre optic was supposedly better would it?

    You have to laugh. Another generation comes along and re-invents the wheel. Again.

  2. Rain rain go away by davidwr · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Some microwave frequencies are sensitive to the weather.

    I'm not sure if there are any that are weather-insensitive to be useful in a thunderstorm, snowstorm, or in heavy low-lying clouds/foggy conditions.

    --
    Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
    1. Re:Rain rain go away by Megane · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I remember the bad old days in the '80s when cable TV reception would go to shit on rainy days because they used microwave links to connect their various head ends in a big city. Then they upgraded the whole system to fiber, which turned out to be a good thing years later when cable modems became a thing.

      --
      #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
  3. City/Nation Wide Mesh Networks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Mesh networks, peer-to-peer between nodes (homes/businesses,etc), would be useful for offloading non-time critical applications such as file transfers and open up opportunities for local delivery of online services that eliminate the need to send traffic through major choke points.

  4. Re:Prior art by BenFranske · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I always smile when passing old long-lines towers on the road (or seeing them on top of central office buildings in large cities). You can get an idea of the size and scope of the network at http://long-lines.net/ which has some excellent maps such as http://i.imgur.com/HI0cMJ1.jpg showing the network.

  5. Re:Fiber is fast! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Slowing everything to a crawl is a business model? My eyeballs will be on the site that loads quickly with minimum startup BS.

  6. Re:Fiber is fast! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Google results preferring quickly loading pages.

  7. I have an idea by slashmydots · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Remove all the government spying crap. That would probably speed it up a bit.

  8. Why? by Lumpy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Just use the frigging dark fiber that is already running between them.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  9. Re:Why not lasers? by Lumpy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Not even lasers. Hackers have been doing this with freaking LED's for long range networking.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R...

    Short of really massive weather conditions they are reliable as hell and dont require clearing all the trees out of the frenel area in front of the dish.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.