Solutions for faster internet
All internet users have at some time or another complained about slow surfing speeds or a tiresome wait for a video to load. A group of European engineers from Spain, Hungary and Sweden decided to try to counter such problems by monitoring traffic and tailoring services to meet demand. A number of leading communication companies have already taken up the newly developed methodology used for traffic measurements. EUREKA, the European platform for research and development (R&D) funding, supported the research study. The Internet is a complex 'beast', made up of different networks that are managed by various service providers, who manage the data being sent and monitor the amount of traffic being used. When the data traffic on a network is too dense bottlenecks can occur, slowing the delivery of information to a computer and resulting in a slower internet experience. The TRAMMS ('Traffic measurements and models in multi-service networks') project tried to solve this problem using experiences gained after monitoring internet networks in Spain and Sweden over a three-year period. This gave them an excellent insight into user behaviour, enabling them to accurately measure network traffic so that in the future service providers will know how much capacity is needed and can avoid any jams. The research team pointed out that the project was successful because, contrary to the norm, they were allowed access to very sensitive data on internet traffic measurements. 'Internet traffic measurements are very difficult to find if you are not an operator,' said Andreas Aurelius, coordinator of the project and senior scientist at Swedish R&D company Acreo, one of the project partners. Previous research in this field has normally been limited to campus networks, and limited to a geographical area, but Mr Aurelius highlighted that this study used 'data in access networks, not campus networks'. The project monitored internet protocol (IP) traffic (the flow of data on the Internet), routing decisions (the selection of which path to send network traffic), the quality of service (giving priority to certain applications such as multimedia) and available bandwidth. Indeed, the team managed to collect an astonishing 3,000 terabytes of data over the 3-year period. This was important as it allowed them to study trends and changes over an extended period of time amid a continuous influx of information. The researchers used the information to develop new tools that measured traffic which gave a complete picture of a network and will therefore make web browsing considerably faster. 'For everyday users, this means better quality for multimedia services over the Internet, like streaming for example,' said Mr Aurelius. He said the project's timing was somewhat auspicious colliding with the economic downturn, but it seems to have had few long-term effects on the outcome. 'The economic recession hit us hard, and many partners dropped out or slowed down their cooperation,' said Mr Aurelius, but he admitted that 'ultimately [the project] was very successful - better than we could have imagined'. Mr. Aurelius is now working on a follow-up project entitled IPNQSIS ('IP network monitoring for quality of service intelligent support'), which deals with the quality of experience in network services, such as voice over IP (VoIP), video on demand (VoD) and IP television (IPTV). These are sectors where network service providers are expecting huge revenue opportunities.
Countries
Spain, Hungary, Sweden