What would the internet look like if we could prise off the lid and peer into its innards?
Shai Carmi of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, and his colleagues studied data from over 5000 computers loaded with software that constantly probes the connections around it. They found that at the internet鈥檚 core lie the most heavily connected networks, run by firms such as AT&T and Google. It never takes more than one or two steps to move between points here. Outside that is the 鈥渕antle鈥� of well-connected internet service providers, where links take three or four steps. On the periphery are satellite networks that need to route signals through the core.
Internet speeds could be improved when traffic is high by sending signals through the mantle rather than the core, says Carmi.
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