Ragheed Ayoub
The world's fears have increased during the recent period that the current pandemic will extend for several months and perhaps until the end of the year, and while some fear in the current crisis that food supplies will be cut off, others are preoccupied with another matter, which is the interruption of the Internet.
Although the Internet was designed during the past century to withstand a nuclear attack, the current situation is completely different. Could this be the end of the Internet, and why do we face these technical difficulties in our work from home, and if the Internet is fine, why have major companies reduced the quality of its services?
All of this we will answer in this report:
1- Can the Internet handle a pandemic the size of Corona? The Internet is an incredibly powerful and resilient network that has been specially designed to cope with large spikes in traffic just like the one we are living through.
Akamai Technologies, a Cambridge-based company that monitors the worldwide network, found that global traffic was running 67% higher than the normal daily average.
Analysts expect the country's networks to bear this kind of increase in traffic. Over the years, networks have added massive amounts of spare capacity than is required to handle current developments.
"It's good," said communications analyst Roger Entner, founder of Recon Analytics in Boston. "We probably won't see problems, not from the main part of the network."
2- If the Internet is like this, why do we face difficulties in work-from-home applications or entertainment sites? This slowdown that most users face is due to the "last mile", which is the last level (3) of the Internet that is between you and the service provider directly .
The Internet is divided into three levels: the first level, which is the backbone of the network connecting continents by cable, the second level is the major telecom companies that provide service in the same region, such as Vodafone, and the third level, or the last mile, is the local service providers who connect your home to the service .
Local carriers are able to withstand the pressure as much as they can, so slowdowns are likely at major bottlenecks on the Internet.
For example, teleconferencing services may experience intermittent problems as thousands of home workers conduct video meetings remotely, this type of service is experiencing a state of throttling due to an increase in the volume of demand for the same service at one time.
Here, the Internet will deal with this throttling by reducing your call quality, while your colleague from another country may lose connection completely due to the weakness of his third-level service provider.
"It's nothing like a car," Prince said of the Internet. "It's not like that. If you run your car too fast for a long period of time, your car is more likely to break down. But networks don't work that way."
4- But if this is the case, why have major companies reduced the quality of their services in some areas? The main reason for this is that the Internet infrastructure in some countries is not good enough. Italy, in particular, has witnessed a sharp drop in speeds since Its government orders shutdowns, but internet speeds in Italy and many other European countries are less than half that of the United States, in part because of aging infrastructure.
This alarming situation in Europe prompted Netflix to reduce the number of visits there by 25%, as well as YouTube's promise to restrict quality in order to make room for other services.
This means that Netflix users may notice a slight drop in video quality, but it also means that their local bank website is still working properly, so this is a precautionary measure.
4- What about the situation of the Arab countries? Muhammad Portamukh, a specialist in the field of networks and operations solutions, answers this question by saying, "The information technology infrastructure in the Arab countries is very good in view of the existing resources in some countries."
"Whether or not it will withstand the increased loads depends on several factors including investing in and expanding existing infrastructure, prioritizing technical upgrades, and diverting financial resources to maintain network infrastructure," he adds.
As for the responsibility for these updates, Portamukh replies, "Given the dire financial situation in most countries, it is expected that the financial burden of maintaining IT infrastructure will fall on the shoulders of governments more than on the private sector."
5- How can I ensure my internet service without overburdening the network? If you use a wireless router to connect to the internet, keep in mind that your other devices are competing for the same wireless band, congesting the network at home.
It is therefore recommended to connect directly to your router using Ethernet to free up wireless bandwidth, or simply turn off devices that are not being used until they are finished.
You might also consider "timeshifting" your Internet activity, says Korek of Commscope.
For Muhammad Burtamukh, it is important to modify the behavior of citizens towards a balanced "life" online and encourage them to stay offline.
Despite the importance of using technology to provide and consume daily services, he believes that this is an opportunity to move away from it a little and limit it to a minimum and go for other activities, such as sports and reading.