Breaking the Metro Bottleneck
The information racing across the country in huge fiber-optic pipes hits a snarl under city streets. New optical networking techniques are clearing the way.
MIT News: Jan/Feb 2012
TR: Jun 2001 PDF issue
Surging Internet growth has put pressure on telecom networks to keep up. Their most advanced R&D is going toward expanding the capacity of the long-haul cables that cross continent
The information racing across the country in huge fiber-optic pipes hits a snarl under city streets. New optical networking techniques are clearing the way.
Telecommunications companies are spending billions to prepare high-speed mobile wireless networks. But it´s not clear whether the technologies will work...or if we even need them.
If displays and keyboards don´t get better, increasing wireless bandwidth won´t mean diddly.
The hype is that broadband will transform entertainment, changing everything from how we watch movies to the video games that we play. The reality doesn´t exactly match up.
If your car is your refuge from the wired world, look out—a new field called telematics could soon put e-mail, news and MP3s in the driver´s seat with you.
The inventor of the portable cell phone didn´t carry one until they slimmed down to 100 grams. Then again, he´s a rebel in almost every way.
From the editor in chief
A yen for caffeine helped to put the first video camera on the Net.
E-commerce companies make a mistake if they expect us to adapt to them.
When will the marriage of Web and words create a richer language?
For all the talk about "convergence," multiple media will never coalesce into one supermedium.
If publishing companies´ nefarious plans succeed, libraries will cease to exist.
Faster chips require built-in optics.
Left unchecked, cable firms will funnel Internet traffic to their own content—and the Web won´t be worldly or wise.
How that e-mail gets to your desk.
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