The U.S. wireless sector is going through an interesting time thanks to the FCC looking to auction off different spectrums. This is a step that many wireless providers are looking forward to because they need to figure out how to offer more bandwidth to users and their data hungry smartphones. It has become quite clear that the mobile future will have us all connected through our smartphones but the question is whether wireless networks can handle all the activity. Some telecom companies are looking at adding more cell towers but that is obviously an expensive proposition. That is why an MIT discovery that utilizes an algebraic algorithm to increase data speeds and reduce dropped packets has received a lot of positive attention.
Research shows that dropped packets can back up the traffic on wireless networks quickly. This happens because all devices on the network will try and find dropped packets and only a small amount can cause big delays. MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics tried to solve this problem by sending out a type of packet that is very different from the ones in use today. They developed an algebraic equation that describes a group of packets. If one of these does not get delivered, the device that is receiving the data can “solve” the missing packet. This puts processing load on other devices and leaves the routers and base stations free.
The MIT developed technology has also shown that it can seamlessly transition data when communicating between wireless internet and LTE. The technology has also been tested on WiFi networks by MIT and has shown encouraging results. According to the data gathered from the experiments, “when two percent of data packets were dropped, speeds were boosted from 1Mbps to 16Mbps. If five percent of packets were being lost, the researchers then saw bandwidth increase from 0.5Mbps to 13.5Mbps.”
As can be expected, real world firms are already buying licenses for the new MIT technology. There has been no statement from the University about how that process is taking place. However, project lead Muriel Medard says that there are currently “very severe inefficiencies that should be remedied before you consider acquiring more resources.” Wireless companies seem to agree but the technology has yet to prove itself in the real world.
Source: Engadget
Photo: BlogCDN
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