The internet's TCP standard dates back to 1974. Being the protocol that is used widely by corporations and governments, an upgrade should mean a better and faster connection. Akamai Technologies is one of the world's largest operators of internet plumbing, and it's proposing a plan.
Akamai that was founded in 1998, is operating a giant global network of over than 200,000 servers. The company that is having many companies and ISP's web traffic to flow through its pipeline, is proposing a plan to give data flow a major speed boost: a 30 percent average increase.
Kit Knox, Vice President for Media Engineering at Akamai, said that his company wants to release the technology in the hope that it will be adopted as standard. He presented the tested results at a conference on video-streaming technology hosted by Facebook.
Akamai has tested the technology with its servers that are available in many countries. Tests in India, China and Bolivia showed an improvement of more than 150 percent. In more developed countries such as Germany, Akamai said that the improvements are just a few percentages. While the results varied and depends on the location, as well as the local ISP, on average, the rate in which data could be transferred jumped to just over 30 percent.
The new technology is called Giga, and it's Akamai proposed technology to replace TCP that is overdue for an upgrade, said Knox.
"A lot of the core protocols we use to deliver content haven't evolved much - we're going to need new technologies to bring this into the future," he said.
What Giga can do is to give several improvements to the already existing TCP by squeezing out better performance by better detecting the route to a person trying to access the data, and see if it's at capacity or not. While TCP often incorrectly assumes connections are full when they in fact have unused capacity, Knox said. Giga can also encodes data into electronic packets in a way that reduces dropped links.
TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) is one the main protocols in TCP/IP networks. Being the major protocol for internet applications such as the World Wide Web, email, remote administration and file transfer, TCP is practically the rule that powers almost everything the web has to give.
As a potential replacement of TCP, Giga requires end-user devices (from computers, laptops to any mobile devices for that matter) and server companies to support the protocol. Akamai plans to release the technology to encourage Giga's adoption in the internet industry.
Better Speed To Flourish The Rising Data
The world has seen bits, kilobits and megabits. When it entered the age of gigabits, it wanted more. The terms for speed for average internet users is widely used to refer the ability to transfer data.
There are disputes about just how quickly and how broadly the move toward gigabit networks will spread. Some said that telecommunication companies' policies lack of competition is preventing them in investing for a better infrastructure. Some government leaders said that the current speed for average internet users is already sufficient.
When most people are happy with that they have, the efforts people put to expand and to evolve diminish.
Historically, every major advance in bandwidth and speed were caused by the need for better information transaction and better experience. In the internet's early years, 56Kbps dial-up modems that were based on V.90/92 standards, could facilitate email and standard browsing experience. Faster modems that were then introduced, helped websites to become more usable and give better experience. Early broadband adoptions that can provide 700Kbps in average, gave quicker uploading and downloading big files such as MP3 files on the days Napster was popular. Later, the improved connection allowed the rise and popularity of streaming services like YouTube, Amazon Prime and Netflix.
As more contents are uploaded and shared, people needed to get those information on the go. Wireless connectivity was then popularized. The technology that was heavily influenced by the adoption of advanced technologies to make computers smaller created the era in which mobile devices are common today.
As more new technologies are introduced, more helping hands are aiming to create a better world-to-digital blend. But as most frequent netizens are happy with the speed they're having today, they have less to expect. But to those that think there will be unique compelling applications that can capitalize upon the speed increase, speed is everything.
Some of today's technologies that depend heavily on internet speed are those that try to make the internet a better medium for the real world. For example, virtual reality and life logging software. Social sectors such as health, medicine and education were also mentioned often.The Internet of Things that can connect everyday objects, making them "smart", should also benefit from the speed increase.
Further benefit of the internet's speed boost should come from better video/video quality streaming experience, telesurgery, new experience on social media networks, more sensor data implemented into daily lives, more cloud-based services, and much more.
While the benefit is without a doubt can give a much more immersive user-experience of tech in overall, people have argued that there won't be any significant change for at least 10 years time.