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IBZL: Infinite bandwidth: zero latency

#IBZL

IBZL is a thought experiment. It starts from the question: what if bandwidth (and latency) in networks like the internet didn't matter any more? What would become possible?



The capacity and speed of the internet and related networks has increased exponentially over the last 20 years but the change has come in steps, steps that have unleashed waves of innovation.

First generation broadband technology gave millions of users an ʻalways-onʼ connection to the net for the first time. This led to unforeseen, unanticipated and disruptive new applications like Wikipedia and Youtube.

Next generation fibre optic broadband will be an even bigger disruption, with the potential for almost unlimited bandwidth and latency approaching zero.

Can we imagine? Can we anticipate the sort of new applications and services that might develop? More importantly, what new technologies will become possible with effectively unlimited bandwidth and near-zero latency?

IBZL tries to create the conditions to start that imagining process.

Organised by the School of Mathematics and Computing at the Open University, and Manchester Digital, the IBZL Programme has brought together diverse and imaginative thinkers from technical and non-technical backgrounds - from universities, business and the public and third sectors. Its aim is simple: to create new thinking and new projects either to take the thinking further, or to convert it into tangible products and services.