Uh oh. More evidence that the Gillard Government’s $37 billion wire-in-the-wall National Broadband Network could be the biggest white elephant in our history. Gizmodo reports:
A team of researchers promises it can increase wireless bandwidth by an order or magnitude, without any new hardware whatsoever. All that’s required, it claims, is a little extra math.
Technology Review reports that the scientists have been developing algebraic techniques to eliminate the task of resending dropped packets of data—something that really clogs up networks. Creating a new way for devices to solve the problem of missing data eliminates the wasted effort of resending data—but also means devices can weave data streams from Wi-Fi and LTE together, instead of having to use one or the other.
Technology Review quantifies:
Testing the system on Wi-Fi networks at MIT, where 2 percent of packets are typically lost, Medard’s group found that a normal bandwidth of one megabit per second was boosted to 16 megabits per second. In a circumstance where losses were 5 percent-common on a fast-moving train-the method boosted bandwidth from 0.5 megabits per second to 13.5 megabits per second.
