Internet Strains Under Video Revolution

February 12th, 2007: Google is warning that the rise of internet video is driving the web to a traffic jam of epic proportions and threatening to put a significant dampener on global network speeds.

As services such as YouTube, BitTorrent and Joost (from the creators of Skype) become more popular, the sheer volume of video data being moved from place to place is forcing the underlying internet infrastructure to groan.

"The Web infrastructure, and even Google's (infrastructure) doesn't scale. It's not going to offer the quality of service that consumers expect," Vincent Dureau, Google's head of TV technology, said at the recent Cable Europe Congress according to Reuters.

BitTorrent in particular is making a name for itself, not only as a tool for copyright infringement but also as a driver of over 50% of all internet traffic. The software breaks files down into tiny fragments enabling a file to be downloaded from many different places simultaneously. The more peers there are with the file, the faster it downloads. While an extremely efficient method of data transference, peer to peer services such as BitTorrent are causing telcos and other companies responsible for the underlying internet infrastructure grief as they continually upgrade equipment to meet thirsty user demands.

"Most of the internet traffic is peer-to-peer, and most of that is video," Richard Alden, chief executive of Spanish cable company ONO, told the Congress. “Every year we have to invest substantially just to maintain the user experience. In fact it has actually decreased.”

The problem is not as straight forward as it seems and while the capacity to deal with the demand for data does exist, more investments must be made to tap into it. The Congress is urging ISPs to increase their investment in infrastructure to keep pace with demand.

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