Researchers Crack Internet Speed Record

April 26, 2007: Researchers from the University of Tokyo have managed to break data transmission speed records twice in as many days using standard TCP communication protocols.

At the end of December 2006, the researchers managed to transmit data over a 30,000 plus km stretch of network operated by Internet2 at a hasty 7.67 gigabits per second (Gbps).Not content with this record, the team modified the standard communications protocols to achieve 9.08 Gbps over the same expanse of network, breaking their own record and dropping just short of the technology’s 10Gbps theoretical limit.

To put this speed in perspective, the technology would enable a high-definition movie to be transmitted in under 30 seconds, compared to the two days currently possible for home broadband.

The data began its run in Tokyo, shot off to Chicago, then to Amsterdam, back to Seattle in the US and finally home to Tokyo.

Internet2 is run by a consortium of 200 Universities in the US and is already planning a successor to the record-breaking network that it says will clock in at 100 Gbps.

“These records are final for the 10Gbps network era because they represent more than 98 per cent of the upper limit of network capacity,” said Dr Kei Hiraki, professor at the University of Tokyo and team leader at the Internet2 consortium's spring meeting. “Through collaboration by a number of institutions, we have demonstrated the ability to overcome the distance and achieve this newest mark.”

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