new file transfer protocol?

[Varran]

Scientists have developed a new data transfer protocol
for the Internet fast enough to download a full-length
DVD movie in less than five seconds, the California
Institute of Technology said today.

The protocol is called FAST, standing for Fast Active
queue management Scalable Transmission Control
Protocol (TCP).

The researchers achieved a speed of 8,609 megabits per
second (Mbps) by using 10 simultaneous flows of data
over routed paths, the largest aggregate throughput
ever accomplished in such a configuration, Caltech
said in a news release. "That is 153,000 times that of
today's modem and close to 6,000 times that of the
common standard for ADSL (Asymmetric Digital
Subscriber Line) connections."

"The FAST protocol sustained this speed using standard
packet size, stably over an extended period on shared
networks in the presence of background traffic, making
it adaptable for deployment on the world's high-speed
production networks," Caltech said.

*shrug*

anyone a little more tech-saavy than I can make heads outta this?

[Myztlee]

Did a google search, it does seem to be real, though who has a HD that can write that fast yet?

[Bram]

It will make Firewire drives worthwhile for many more people.

[Fenudwin]

I wonder if the new serial ATA drives will keep up, I've been looking into a system that uses 2 of those in synch with each other. Fen
________
CB400N (http://www.cyclechaos.com/wiki/Honda_CB400N)

[Tarissa]

sounds hyped and like they're leaving out a lot of details. no ones going to get that bandwidth out of at least the US's cable infrastructure...

Sounds like the closest you can get now is download express which is about 600k and opens up as many threads that you want to download a file simultaneously from the same sight. I bet you could use up almost all your cable modems bandwidth with just that..

Tari

[Talas]

yaya distributed computing! :)

[Buazag Bonesteel]

From the little I read I would guess that yes absolutely bandwidth of that magnitude is possible in the right scenario with the right equipment. Problem bein....the right equipment and it's easy availability and commonality.

Likely a tech jump of this type and magnitude will follow much the same path that HDTV has. The possibility and technical availability/know how has been around for quite some time. The problem was in the fact that it was prohibitively expensive to get the necessary equipment and once you did there wasn't a big difference because hardly anyone was using the protocol to broadcast in....reasoning being that since it was so expensive not enough people had the gear to make it worth their while to do so. Wound up being a bit of a viscious circle where neither the consumer nor the broadcasters wanted to step up to the plate and make HDTV the way to go....always waiting on the other side to make it feasible. It wasn't until the government stepped in and made regulations saying that stations would be required to broadcast in digital format that there began to be any headway and even so it has been slow. There are many shows now simulcast in HDTV but the sets are still fairly expensive....although not nearly as bad as they used to be.

A new technology in file transfer protocol like this would require new equipment for both home users and servers all the way around.....high download speed is great but doesn't mean dick if the upload speed of the server is capped. It will take a few years of validation in that it is a viable change to make and then maybe the government will step in or maybe it will happen on it's own. The mere fact of it's possibility doesn't mean in any way that it will become an available feature for anyone anytime soon though. Our society in general seems to abhor large changes in anything that will affect the majority of the public.

For instance there is absolutely the technological know how in the world to both design and build an automobile that runs perfectly well on means other than fossil fuels which are harmful to the environment. Introducing a change of that scope, however, would have huge ripple effects on the public at large and in the world economy. Therefore it remains in the realm of hobbyism at best. Several car companies have developed solar powered, battery powered, or hybrid type cars but they are merely a novelty as they continue to mass produce gas guzzling autos for the general public. In all likelihood the very nature of that change and it's very size in that it would effect so many people on so many levels means that it won't be until we really do run into an oil shortage the likes of which mean we are actually running out that we will be forced to make a change.

Just the way our society works. For every one person who sees a new and revolutionary idea and thinks it is cool and wants to move on and adapt to the change....there are ten who see it as unnecessary and a threat to the status quo.

Fuck me that was a long post....need to cut back on the coffee :D

[tweedius]

You also have to consider, even if you could get that pushed to your ISP/LAN provider, your network card can only handle about 100 MBits/Second (I understand there are gigabit cards, that's what I set up for my work network's backbone to the servers). At that rate, it takes about 2-3 minutes to copy DVD's that I download onto my laptop to take home.

I'd be super interested to know how they got it all in 5 seconds heh, considering there are bottlenecks in bandwidth at so many points of the telecommunications system.

-Tweed

[Talas]

Bet you have to be a graduate student at Cal Tech to find out :p

[Varran]

Talked to a friend about it, he's very excited at the possibility of actually using the solid state hard drive he bought last year. Not sure how good a reg hard drive would hold up tho...