I wonder how much of this is bandwidth that could be saved by clamping down on worm traffic / assorted junk from zombies and open proxies etc, before investing in new bandwidth on a national scale - and in upgrading routers and other kit for that purpose. And I do believe that a lot of the bandwidth for broadband (true broadband that is, not what the average US ISP would call "dsl" or "cable") there is online gaming traffic... bandwidth requirements for that would be increasing steadily if I don't miss my guess. -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [IP] Japan facing bandwidth shortage due to take-up in broadband Date: Wed, 9 Jun 2004 19:07:04 -0400 From: David Farber <dave@farber.net> Reply-To: dave@farber.net To: Ip <ip@v2.listbox.com> Begin forwarded message: [Thanks to Adam Peake for this pointer. Some excerpts - BSA] http://neasia.nikkeibp.com/wcs/leaf?CID=onair/asabt/fw/292043 Prediction of Communications Crisis Prompts Japan's Telecom Ministry to Take Action February 23, 2004 (TOKYO) -- Japan's Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications (MPHPT) is taking the initiative to establish a study group in order to circumvent a potential communications crisis that could occur in Japan due to a sharp increase in data communications traffic. Predicting that the spread of broadband communications may cause capacity shortages in existing communications infrastructures as soon as five years from now, and strong possibilities of triggering interruptions, the MPHPT plans to launch countermeasures aimed at reinforcing the communications infrastructure. The study group expects to release a midterm report this summer. According to the report, data communications traffic across the country has been expanded nearly 1,000 times as large as that observed in the last 10 years. If it continues to increase at this pace, the domestic data communications traffic should reach as much as 1,024 times the current volume in the next 10 years. With the current facilities as they are, a simple calculation shows that actual communications traffic will exceed the backbone's maximum capacity as soon as five years from now. That is not the only problem. Capacity limits of devices -- routers and switches that constitute communications networks -- are coming within sight. In order to handle huge communications traffic without any delay, large-capacity routers of more than 10Tbps are required. To deal with growing data communications traffic, it is imperative to reinvest in the communications infrastructure, such as an expansion of relay-network capacities by adding new optical fibers and communications equipment. ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as suresh@hserus.net To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/