DSL and Cable Modems Will Not Solve Internet Performance Problems According to Keynote Systems
Internet Speed Limit Impedes Full Potential of High-Speed Internet Access Over "The Last Mile"
SAN MATEO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 13, 1998-- Despite current industry efforts to increase Internet bandwidth over ''the last mile'' to the home or office, the high-speed promises of new technologies such as DSL and cable modems will not be fulfilled until the Internet itself is able to deliver traffic at such high speeds.
Currently, traffic on the Internet reaches its destinations at an average speed of only 5000 characters per second, or 40 kilobits per second (kbps), according to millions of measurements conducted over the past year by Keynote Systems, the recognized authority on Internet performance. Therefore, even though high-speed modems may promise more, they cannot deliver web content to users any faster than the Internet's 40kbps average speed limit will allow.
Simply increasing bandwidth to the home is similar to widening the city streets between your home and the nearest freeway -- you still may not drive to work any faster because the freeway is as congested as ever. Internet performance problems will only be solved through widespread improvements to its infrastructure.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman William E. Kennard stated in a recent speech that the key to satisfying increasing demands on Internet traffic is ''to deliver high bandwidth services over the 'last mile' to consumers.''
According to Jim Barrick, vice president and chief technical officer of Keynote Systems, ''DSL and cable modems will improve performance for consumers who have been experiencing poor Internet connections over slower 28.8 or 56k modems, there's no doubt about that. But don't expect to see the blazing speeds promised because the Internet is still going to put on the brakes. Independent reviewers are already discovering that high-speed modems are not delivering web content at full throttle. And there's the reason why.''
Internet Performance Solutions
The major performance slowdowns occur in the Internet infrastructure, primarily at the on-ramps, off-ramps and interconnection, or switching, points between Internet providers where congestion and packet loss frequently occur. According to Barrick, significant Internet performance improvements require solutions in several areas:
intelligent caching of popular web content much closer to user populations;
duplicating popular web sites at multiple ''mirrored'' locations around the Internet;
greater use of IP multicasting for distributing popular web content;
increased implementation of private peering (interconnections) between backbone providers (there are more than 30 backbone providers in the U.S. alone);
improved efficiency of peering at public interconnections such as MAE-West and MAE-East;
performance-aware web site designs that minimize download times for users; and
widespread adoption of HTTP version 1.1 in web servers and web browsers.
How the Internet Speed Limit Was Measured
Keynote Systems calculated the true speed of the Internet as experienced by World Wide Web users based on millions of performance measurements made around the clock by downloading pages from web sites on 34 Internet backbones to 30 measurement locations in major metropolitan areas around the United States.
The company used its Keynote Perspective service to measure page-download times of 10,000-character files via industry-standard HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol), the same protocol used by the Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT - news) and Netscape (NASDAQ:NSCP - news) web browsers. All of the measurements were taken over T-1 (1.54 Mbps) or T-3 (45 Mbps) connections from locations only one or two router ''hops'' away from an Internet backbone.
Most web users will actually experience performance worse than the measured average because Keynote's measurements were conducted over faster connections than most users have available and include measurements performed at night when traffic is light. Most Web users, by contrast, especially those ''surfing'' from home, are farther away from the main thoroughfares of the Internet and may also encounter congestion on the POPs that they dial into.
The Internet's average speed limit is just one of a number of discoveries about the Internet made by Keynote Systems from its ongoing performance measurements for its customers. For a full list of the The Top 10 Discoveries About the Internet, visit Keynote's web site at keynote.com.
About Keynote Systems
Keynote Systems is the premier supplier of Internet performance data and diagnostic services to corporations with business-critical web sites. The company markets Keynote Perspective, a global real-time service that measures, compares and assures the Quality of Service of corporate Internet sites around the world.
The foundation of the service is an extensive network of customizable software measurement agents connected to the major Internet backbones in dozens of metropolitan areas worldwide plus a sophisticated operations center for collecting and disseminating Internet performance data.
Keynote customers include some of the world's busiest and most successful corporate Internet web sites and web-hosting companies -- including American Express (NYSE:AXP), DIGEX, Exodus Communications, IBM Corporation (NYSE:IBM), Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC) InterNex, The SABRE Group (NYSE:TSG), Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ:SUNW), and Ziff-Davis -- which use the service to improve customer satisfaction and ensure competitiveness.
For further information about Keynote Perspective, or to schedule a free-one week performance appraisal of web site, visit Keynote's web site at keynote.com or contact the company at Keynote Systems, Inc., Two West Fifth Avenue, San Mateo, Calif. 94402, telephone 650/524-3000, fax 650/524-3099, email info@keynote.com.
Note to Editors: Keynote and perspective are trademarks of Keynote System, Inc. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
I'll take whtever speed increase I can get!! |
