Internet hung by data exchange

2007/09/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Komunikazioak
• Internet

Currently, the vast amount of information on the Internet is managed without problems. But how long? In fact, it is noted annually that it will become increasingly difficult to meet the needs of users. Where is the problem? Routers. Despite the sufficient capacity of the cables, the nodes at their ends are increasingly loaded: the mission of the routers is to direct the data packets along the shortest path of the network, performing multiple calculations every second. Of course, if the number of data increases, routers are at risk of overflowing.

Increasing the number of information exchanges is not just an alarm: Since the Internet became an open society, more and more bytes are being used. In the 90s the network was only used to send emails of few bytes; in the mid 90s, with the creation of websites with multiple images and music in MP3 format, we started to manage the data of megabytes. But the real revolution took place beyond 2003: today people sweep away data from gigabytes, for example, from YouTube or MyMotion.

As the pace of exchange and the amount of exchange increases, experts worry. They consider that from a moment the routers will not be able to perform the number of calculations requested as soon as they request it. However, router-producing companies do not have the same opinion and argue that the effectiveness of current routers is as good as avoiding such problems.