OFF: Re: Downloadin' CD's...

[Paul Mather]

On Mon, 13 Jan 1997, Craig Shipley wrote:

> The reason why, my friend, is BANDWIDTH. Ever downloaded a patch for a
> bit of your software? Didn't it seem like ETERNITY?  I think that it
> would be slicker 'n snot on a doorknob that we could download the latest
> 'n greatest or that rare release that only a half a dozen people this
> side of Alpha Centauri have heard of, but the problem is that it would
> take forever to download. (Yes, I am aware of ISDN, Frame Relay, X2
> technology and a couple of other high speed data transmission
> technologies; however, how many of you can afford 'em, hmmmm? Didn't
> think so; me, either...) This is the BIG hold-up IMHO...

Actually, the problem is more interesting than that.  There is not
currently a shortage of bandwidth.  Not in the Internet backbone, at
least.  Where the shortage arises is at the "edges" or periphery of the
Internet, e.g. where your typical university/corporation connects to it.
*That* is where the bottleneck currently lies, not in the backbone itself.
Actually, that's the main reason the Internet backbone can keep up with
(even ahead of) demand.  Here at VT we are about to upgrade to low-ATM
speed (155 Mb/sec), so we are doing our bit to degrade overall
performance. :-)  Naturally, those folks using our modem pool to access
the Internet will still be straining their data through 2400-115200 bps
connections, and so even if we had a multi-gigabit connection, they'd
still have to wait and wait and wait for certain things. :-)  But at least
this means we can now use the Mbone without necessarily having to reserve
the session with CNS in advance... :-)

We can also use our existing bandwidth more sensibly.  For example, HTTP
(as used in the WWW) is a *terrible* protocol from the point of view of
low-overhead, fast parsing efficiency.

Btw, since there is a big impetus for video on demand, there is a LOT of
effort being put into solving this problem.  If they get video on demand
to work, all the stuff that AB wanted will naturally follow as a
corollary.

Frighteningly, the world seems to be turning back to centralised
computing.  (See the chapter in that online WWW book I posted the URL for;
see chapters 22 & 23.)  This seems a big step back in many ways for the
user, IMHO, but a Good Thing[tm] for administrators and large
corporation$.

Cheers,

Paul.

obCD: Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, _For The Last Time_

e-mail: paul at csgrad.cs.vt.edu                    A stranger in a strange land.