Is high bandwidth usage an issue on wired network service?
Network capacity is finite, but the demand for bandwidth continuously increases. Previously, bandwidth-intensive applications, such as Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file-sharing applications, have completely saturated Cornell’s network capacity, bringing Internet access nearly to a stand-still (specifically, this was mainly the result of outbound traffic being caused by users elsewhere in the world downloading from file servers and file-sharing applications running on computers at Cornell). Cornell has since taken steps to manage bandwidth usage and prevent high-bandwidth applications, particularly file-sharing, from threatening the university’s network access and performance. Bandwidth usage at Cornell is currently within the limits of the university’s network capacity, and has been for several years.
