Thursday, March 13, 2008

Video Road Hogs Stir Fear of Internet Traffic Jam - New York Times

Interesting times...

The threat, according to some industry groups, analysts and researchers, stems mainly from the increasing visual richness of online communications and entertainment — video clips and movies, social networks and multiplayer games.

Moving images, far more than words or sounds, are hefty rivers of digital bits as they traverse the Internet’s pipes and gateways, requiring, in industry parlance, more bandwidth. Last year, by one estimate, the video site YouTube, owned by Google, consumed as much bandwidth as the entire Internet did in 2000.

One of the many things announced at Microsoft MIX last week: bit rate throttling in IIS 7 Media Pack.  Most web videos are apparently only watched one-third to one-half way through, so YouTube and other current services waste an astounding amount of bandwidth by caching full videos locally when many users will only watch part of the video; Microsoft claims its new bit rate throttling can produce bandwidth savings of 50 - 60%.

Video Road Hogs Stir Fear of Internet Traffic Jam - New York Times

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