Rerouting the Networks

prostoalex writes "Scientific American looks at a new approach to clearing networking jams, in research funded by the US military. Instead of using routers to route the packets from point A and point B, thus making some hop in the sequence critical for delivering the message, researchers are exploring a new approach called 'network coding.' (Here is the illustration cited in the article.)" Quoting: "[Four researchers] then at the University of Hong Kong published groundbreaking work that introduced a new approach to distributing information across shared networks. In... network coding, routers are replaced by coders, which transmit evidence about messages instead of sending the messages themselves. When receivers collect the evidence, they deduce the original information from the assembled clues. Although this method may sound counterintuitive, network coding, which is still under study, has the potential to dramatically speed up and improve the reliability of all manner of communications systems and may well spark the next revolution in the field. Investigators are, of course, also exploring additional avenues for improving efficiency; as far as we know, though, those other approaches generally extend existing methods.'"

Waste of Taxpayer money

[SpaceLifeForm]

All of that new NSA equipment would have to be re-worked.

I doubt that the taxpayers would approve.

don't worry

[geedra]

we'll cut costs by outsourcing to china ;)

"deduce the original information..."

[NewbieV]

... "from the assembled clues"?

Congratulations. You've just hardwired a rumor mill. Everyone knows how fast those things travel.

Re:Waste of Taxpayer money

[grcumb]

All of that new NSA equipment would have to be re-worked. I doubt that the taxpayers would approve.

I am posting in this thread because I'm fresh out of mod points... But even if I weren't, there isn't any "+1, Deftly Ironic" moderation or I'd set you up with one of those...

It was removed because people kept using it when they should have chosen the "+1, Biting Satire" option instead.

(For reference, this post should be modded "+1, Deadpan".)

Re:Or you know...

[the_greywolf]

Comcast already does this.

It's called "cable Internet service."

20 Questions

[BinarySkies]

Point A: (sends a picture of a ladybug)
Point B: 'Okay... is it an animal, vegetable, or mineral?'
Coder: 'It's an animal'
Point B: 'Is it... red?'

Sounds efficient!

Re:Umm most traffic is unicast

[glwtta]

Switch to someone that provides IPv6 (or use a 4-to-6 connection), IPv6 mandates support for multicast.

Hmm, that's like telling someone who's complaining that horses are hard to find to get a unicorn instead.