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That's definitely one of the issues that I'm wondering about. The only thing I can think of is a system where information is distributed to the point that instead of a single network, like we have now with the internet. You actually have several small networks. With the majority of high demand information residing in each of these networks. If each of these smaller networks are fed by large pipes, then that MIGHT address the issue. For instance, if you work in a data center that has a T-1 connection for the building. Another office adding a few more computers will have little effect on your connection speeds. Because there is enough room in the pipe to accomidate the increased bandwidth needs.
I believe that telco's are currently (or were before thier industry went to shit, not sure now) looking into situations where a fiber line is run into a residential area, and then the people in that area use that pipe. I know a year or two ago, this was being thrown around as the answer to distance restrictions of DSL. So instead of measuring your distance to the local Phone Company office (where the DSL line ussually originates) you measure the distance between you and the nearest Point of Service (POS). In my mind this kind of architecture could greatly reduce the amount of clients that are sharing a pipe. Giving each user a higher amount of average bandwidth. We ran some simulations for a contract at work on something similiar to this, and found that with average traffic patterns (email, browsing the web, and some small interactive web services) it acctually takes a lot of people before you start to see degredation of throughput.
And something that just occured to me. Perhaps this will result in a shift in the buisness model for residential broadband. Currently, residential broadband is based on the connections. Most user agreements say that you'll only use one computer at a time on the line. Buisnesses though, that demand high throughput needs, pay according to a promised average bandwidth. The telco promises to deliver a certain amount of bandwidth on an average basis. And then the company can put as many connections on it as they want. The telco's then sell unpromised bandwidth to other companies. When they have to many clients in a certain area, they increase the size of the pipe to accomidate new business.
Course, I might be completly full of shit. It's been a very long day of running around, and I'm just thinking off the top of my head.
Also, I'm assuming what they meant was not that there is 'no' effect. And instead meant that the effect is so minimal that the average user won't notice it. |
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