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Fast TCP
Wired News reports that a group of Scientists from Cal Tech have designed a method (called Fast TCP) to increase download speeds with existing Internet infrastructure. This would allow the user to download full-length movies in a matter of seconds:
"The Fast TCP system, designed by a team of researchers at California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, runs on the same Internet infrastructure currently used but is designed to be much quicker."
"The difference (in Fast TCP) is in the software and hardware on the sending computer, which continually measures the time it takes for sent packets to arrive and how long acknowledgements take to come back," the magazine added. The Fast TCP reveals the delays and predicts the highest data rate the connection can support without losing data."
Quite interesting. Those guys over @ Caltech are awesome
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We've had this discussion before, the basic point to grasp is that the reporting is grossly misleading. Fast TCP represents probably at best a few % performance increase over normal TCP and this increase would probably not be present in any normal web communication.
All fast tcp is, is a protocol advance. This means that a line that can carry 512kb (standard ADSL in UK) with old TCP still carries 512kb with fast tcp. The only difference is that whereas u used to get 60kB of useful (ie not overhead) data transfer, u might get 61kB.
The download a movie in seconds was if u connected half a dozen high speed links.
The guys over at Caltech really aren't that awesome.
