Calculating Total Network Capacity 48
New submitter slashbill writes "MIT's working on a way to measure network capacity. Seems no one really knows how much data their network can handle. Makes you wonder about how then do you calculate expense when building out capacity? From the article: 'Recently, one of the most intriguing developments in information theory has been a different kind of coding, called network coding, in which the question is how to encode information in order to maximize the capacity of a network as a whole. For information theorists, it was natural to ask how these two types of coding might be combined: If you want to both minimize error and maximize capacity, which kind of coding do you apply where, and when do you do the decoding?'"
This is a synopsis of the first of two papers on the topic.
I recall an experiment to do just that (Score:4, Funny)
It was a program by one Robert Tappan Morris, as I recall.
That didn't go over so well with everyone.
Re:Plot traffic, establish a norm, compare history (Score:4, Funny)
Hook up a BitTorrent seedbox to the live Internet. You'll find out the maximum capacity pretty quickly.
Re:Why read your own article? (Score:5, Funny)
... computing the net resistance between 2 adjacent nodes on an infinite grid of 1 ohm resistors.
You're just trying to get someone to post a link to the XKCD comic about nerdsniping [xkcd.com]. Well, it won't work.