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Increased traffic plagues Internet, causes slowdowns

As thousands of new users jump online each day, the Internet is experiencing growing pains -- but the University's networks are not feeling any pressure.

Certain areas of the country, known as hot spots, are suffering congestion as both new and existing users vie for an expanding number of resources on the Internet.

These hot spots are caused by heavy use of telephone lines that support cross-country networks, including MCINet. Hot spots act like traffic jams, slowing down the flow of data from one place to another.

"There's been a huge increase in the number of new users," said Jeff Ogden, associate director for MichNet, a state-wide network run by Merit Network Inc.

Ogden said that while there are no hot spots in Michigan or the Midwest, high concentrations of users in states like California cause congestion. Because the Internet is decentralized, a hot spot can affect any user accessing information in that area of the country.

Although users may not notice their information is being routed through a hot spot area, many network connections are tied through these high traffic sites.

"University users might not notice the increase in Internet traffic and resulting slowdowns," said Todd Hollmann, manager of networking for the Computer Aided Engineering Network.

"It is only a slowdown" and not an outage, Hollmann said. "I think as we wait longer those number of hot spots is going to grow."

"I have noticed very little network slowdown, over and above what I normally expect to be slow," said Mark Stock, an Engineering fifth-year senior.

Hollmann said the University is not experiencing network slowdowns on campus like the slowdowns on the rest of the Internet. He said the main network connections that service the Information Technology Division's computers are running at 20 to 25 percent of capacity and CAEN's are running at 30 to 35 percent of capacity.

He estimated these numbers could rise to 80 and 65 percent respectively before either network might experience interruptions or significant slowdowns.

Several large companies such as MCI and Sprint own large networks that span the country and provide Internet access to local providers. The University is connected to the Internet through Merit Network Inc., which in turn purchases special lines from MCI.

"Service providers can't reasonably be expected to match physically the increased electronic traffic that the Internet's incredible growth requires," Stock said.

"There's not a lot anyone can do at this stage," Ogden said. "(Merit) talked about possibly moving to another carrier," but it would not be a long-term solution because the large networks are interconnected.

MCI has removed some of the hot spots using short-term solutions such as adding more lines in high-traffic areas, but others have appeared, Ogden said.

Ogden said MCI plans to upgrade its core network to approximately triple the current carrying capacity by April, but Hollmann said he didn't expect the upgrades to be ready until June.