Internet pioneer launches networking technology company

Link: Internet pioneer launches networking technology company
Filed under: Technology News, Internet News

Dr Larry Roberts, who led the team that designed and developed ARPANET, the precursor to today’s Internet, is launching a new company, Anagran Inc, on Monday.

When the Internet started in 1969, no one could forsee that the network would be used for transmitting live video content, making voice calls or swapping media files.

The prime consideration at the time was simply to find a way for university and government computers to communicate with each other from different locations.

Despite the phenomenal growth of the Internet and the increasingly complex demands of today’s technology, the techniques used to route and queue data on the net have changed little since the internet’s inception.

Roberts’ new company will bring the internet bang up to date. It sells next-generation networking equipment that will enhance the internet’s performance, so that its can better cope with voice and video.

Data is transmitted over a network in different chunks, or packets. This works well for file sharing, email and instant messaging, but not so well for voice and video data which need to stream uninterrupted.

The transmission of Videos can be delayed, causing frames to freeze, while conversations can be broken up, with words being dropped.

The new Anagran FR-1000 Flow Routers help to improve the flow of data on the internet by directing data along different routes.

They distinguish between packet and streaming data and provide special routes for time-critical data such as video and voice, reducing delay and packet loss.

The new routers use about 80% less power than traditional routers and can improve throughput eight-fold.

The routers are significantly less expensive than traditional routers. They cost between $50,000 and $100,000.