Contents

  1. How To Accelerate Your Internet
  2. Preface
  3. About This Book
  4. Credits
    1. Contributors
    2. Additional material
    3. Funding
    4. Special thanks

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How To Accelerate Your Internet

For more information about this project, visit us online at http://bwmo.net/

Editor: Flickenger R.Associate Editors: Belcher M., Canessa E., Zennaro M.Publishers: INASP/ICTP

© 2006, BMO Book Sprint TeamFirst edition: October 2006

ISBN: 0-9778093-1-5

Many designations used by manufacturers and vendors to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and the authors were aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in all caps or initial caps. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

The authors and publisher have taken due care in preparation of this book, but make no expressed or implied warranty of any kind and assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for incidental or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of the use of the information contained herein.

This work is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 license. For more details regarding your rights to use and redistribute this work, see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/

Preface

One measure of the growing disparity between the developed and developing worlds is the speed of the Internet. For example, the speeds of connections from North America to Africa are slower than those to Europe by a factor of 50 or so. Such assessments have been made by measuring the round trip time that it takes for a digital pulse sent over the Internet to return to the sender.

The reasons for this disparity include the availability of Internet access only via slow satellite connections, and the lack of communications infrastructure in the remote parts of the world. Bandwidth and computing equipment are expensive as a result of weak currencies, high transport costs, small budgets and unreasonable tariffs. Bandwidth in some developing countries can be so costly that even their prime universities cannot afford speeds equivalent to the average western household with an ADSL connection. Thus universities and other institutions cannot afford a decent link, or are simply unaware of existing alternatives.

This book attempts to provide practical information on how to gain the largest benefit from existing connections to the Internet, by exposing readers to the latest techniques to optimise the use of low-bandwidth network connections. By applying optimisation techniques based on open source technologies discussed here, the effectiveness of available connections can be significantly improved. Access to more bandwidth will facilitate better exchange of scientific information, data and literature among researchers all over the world. One hopes that the process will enable every scientist to become part of the scientific enterprise no matter where geographically she is located with respect to the main centers of modern science.

While the Internet has helped global communication, and its use is rising everywhere, the fraction of people with access to it is far higher in rich countries than in poor countries. The average per capita income in industrialised nations is about $27,000 per year, compared with barely $2,000 or so in the developing world. Literacy rates approach 100% of the adult population in developed countries, but the figure falls to below 50% in developing nations. Even as the world is becoming more interconnected, it is becoming increasingly divided in these regards.

This book is a collaborative effort enabled by the support of INASP (UK) and ICTP. The effort that has gone into its preparation will be rewarded if the book can reach large audiences of interested readers and assist them in improving the quality of service of the bandwidth available to them. The authors of the book realise that it is a small drop in the huge ocean of bits and bytes, but the value of their service is not in any doubt. I congratulate them on their work and their decision to make the book freely available both in print and on the Internet.

About This Book

This work is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 license. This allows anyone to make copies or derivative works, and even sell them for a profit, as long as proper attribution is given to the authors and any derivative works are made available under the same terms. Any copies or derivative works must include a prominent link to our website, http://bwmo.net/. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/ for more information about these terms. Consult our website (http://bwmo.net/)for details on how to order a printed copy.

Credits

This book was started as a BookSprint project at the ICTP in Trieste, Italy, in May of 2006. A core team of ten experts in the field of bandwidth management built the initial outline, and developed the book over the course the following months. Throughout the project, the core group has actively solicited contributions and feedback from the Internet community, particularly those who work in the area of bandwidth optimisation in the developing world. The final manuscript was produced by Hacker Friendly LLC in Seattle, WA (USA).

Contributors

Additional material

Portions of this work were adapted from:

Funding

The development and publication of this book have been made possible with funding support from:

Special thanks

The production team would like to thank the ICTP (http://www.ictp.it/), INASP (http://www.inasp.info/), and everyone else who has made this project possible.

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English/Chapter0 (last edited 2006-10-13 23:45:48 by RobFlickenger)