SUDDEN drastic slowdowns in Internet speed appear to follow the same rules as earthquakes. Even though we can’t yet predict earthquakes, the finding might still help Internet traffic managers detect or prevent these rumbles on the Net before they occur.
Internet traffic takes hours to build up, but a sudden slowdown can occur in just microseconds. Statistical physicist Sumiyoshi Abe at the University of Tsukuba in Japan, who was studying the phenomenon, noticed that this resembles the pattern of timescales for earthquakes. Stresses build up in rocks over years or decades, and are released in explosive bursts that last just…
