A faster Internet
has been a dream for many, and it has been a continually changing dream as broadband speeds got faster and faster. When 56k was the norm, just getting an ISDN line was a huge step-up. From there, ADSL or cable was another leap forward. Today, we need fiber to get things even faster, and while many universities and companies have tons of bandwidth on tap, we all yearn for something even quicker.
Leave it to one of the brightest institutions in the world to find a way. A group of MIT
researchers led by Vincent Chan, the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science has recently showcased "new way of organizing optical networks that, in most cases, would eliminate this inefficient conversion process; as a result, it could make the Internet 100 or even 1,000 times faster while actually reducing the amount of energy it consumes." Did you read that? An Internet that's 100x or 1000x faster than today. We know the Internet2 delivers insane speeds for very specialized applications, but something like this could benefit the masses in a huge way.
Content is growing more and more complex, and shuffling data quickly is becoming a serious problem. The new approach, which is called "flow switching," solves the problems that arise when "optical signals coming from different directions reach a router at the same time." Basically, this is a more sophisticated way of managing Internet traffic, and with better handling comes better speed. We can't be for sure when this will actually become a part of our daily lives, and we doubt it will be soon. But just to know someone is working on making our Steam downloads even faster helps us sleep easier at night.