As the need increases for fast transfers of large amounts of data over the Internet, it is increasingly important to have an accurate estimation of throughput between two sources. This is the primary goal of the Bandwidth Estimation Project, which is part of the US Department of Energy's Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing program. It is developing new algorithms and techniques to...

Sharon Eisner Gillett, a graduate student at the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science, has made available both Web and bound hardcopy versions of her thesis, "Connecting Homes to The Internet: An Engineering Cost Model of Cable vs. ISDN." The report describes the technology used to provide residential Internet connections via cable systems and ISDN networks, and discusses the results of a...

While satellites are the current backbone of telecommunications and wireless infrastructure, the company that maintains this Web site envisions a completely new technology. The Stratospheric Telecommunications Service (STS) relies on "lighter-than-air platforms which are held in a geo-stationary position in the stratosphere (approximately 21Km) over a major metropolitan area." The Sky Station...