Speeding Up The Internet
from the jumpstarting-TCP dept
Not much in the way of details in this article, so I'm a little skeptical about some of the claims (and am guessing that the reporter is probably exaggerating some of the usefulness of this), but some researchers have developed a system called "Fast TCP", which supposedly lets people send files over the internet "6,000 times faster" than currently possible. It sounds like Fast TCP just takes away some of the usual "workflow" of TCP - checking to make sure that the proper packets arrived before moving on. However, the story says that this is going to let people download movies in five seconds - and that Microsoft and Disney are already looking at it for video-on-demand services. Update: As expected, this is complete rubbish. Thanks to Adam Barr for pointing out the obvious points in the article that I should have picked up on. The reality is that these researchers did something that makes TCP 3.5 times faster. Then... they string ten of these together to make it 35 times faster and points out that such a system is "6,000 times faster" than an ordinary broadband link - whose limitations have nothing to do with the limitations of TCP.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
And if you belive that...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
hoo baby!
So if I have a car that goes a bit faster than yours...but it also goes 100 times faster than a three-toed sloth...then my car will soon go 100 times faster than yours?
TCP is already written to assume a good connection, it does not "stop and wait" to ensure that packets get there before sending more.
- adam
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: hoo baby!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: hoo baby!
TCP Window size - you don't have to stop and wait for every darn packet
Video Services - why the hell would you use tcp for streaming video?????
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
well now,..........
[ link to this | view in chronology ]