The power of ‘random’: ‘Seemingly loopy’ technique could dramatically improve communications networks
February 10, 2010 | Source: Physorg.com
MIT researchers have designed a radical new approach to communications networks, called “network coding,” which promises to make Internet file sharing faster, streaming video more reliable, and cell-phone reception better, among other improvements.
With network coding, a router mathematically combines packets into hybrid packets, making the most efficient possible use of the network’s bandwidth.