While I'm here, someone mentioned that 70ms is pretty slow for this type of connection - which amazes me, because it blew me away that they could get it that low. (remember, we're talking 1 direction latency here - not ping times, which would atleast be double)
A quick calculation:
A quick check of the net tells me that the distance from Sydney (where the cable is landed in.au) to Los Angeles is 7487 miles (according to a travel agent flight distance site - who knows?), or about 11979km. (pretty similar to the diameter of the earth, which is 12742km)
The speed of light is roughly 299,792,458 m/s so, the best (according to current physics:/) time we can do is about:
39.957 milliseconds
Just at the speed of light we lose almost 40ms, then they've gotta switch it at several points along the way, and while optical switches EXIST, it seems unlikely they're doing optical switching yet.
Gore really is going to miss the boat if he doesn't hurry up and patent this great idea of his - One click kid check - who ever would have thought of it?!
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While I'm here, someone mentioned that 70ms is pretty slow for this type of connection - which amazes me, because it blew me away that they could get it that low. (remember, we're talking 1 direction latency here - not ping times, which would atleast be double)
A quick calculation:
A quick check of the net tells me that the distance from Sydney (where the cable is landed in .au) to Los Angeles is 7487 miles (according to a travel agent flight distance site - who knows?), or about 11979km. (pretty similar to the diameter of the earth, which is 12742km)
The speed of light is roughly 299,792,458 m/s so, the best (according to current physics :/) time we can do is about:
39.957 milliseconds
Just at the speed of light we lose almost 40ms, then they've gotta switch it at several points along the way, and while optical switches EXIST, it seems unlikely they're doing optical switching yet.
All in all I reckon the 70ms figure is AMAZING..
Gore really is going to miss the boat if he doesn't hurry up and patent this great idea of his - One click kid check - who ever would have thought of it?!
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