Researchers break Internet speed record - twice
Operators of the high-speed Internet2 network announced Tuesday that researchers led by the University of Tokyo broke Internet speed records two times in two days.
Rresearchers on Dec. 30 sent data at 7.67 gigabits per second, using standard communications protocols. The next day, using modified protocols, the team broke the record again by sending data over the same 20,000-mile path at 9.08 Gbps. That probably will be the current network's final record because rules require a 10 percent improvement for recognition, a percentage that would bring the next record right at the Internet2's current theoretical limit of 10 Gbps.
The Internet2 consortium is planning to build a new network with a capacity of 100 Gbps -- a 10-fold increase -- that means a high-quality version of the movie "The Matrix" could be sent in a few seconds rather than half a minute over the current Internet2 and two days over a typical home broadband line.
