The internet as we know it might soon grind to a halt because of heavy use unless technologies can provide the massive high-speed bandwidth it needs.
Internet engineers, physicists, scientists and telecoms firms are expected to attend a crucial meeting at London's Royal Society on May 11 to discuss what needs to be done to head-off a looming "web crisis" that might cripple the internet in as little as eight years from now.
The sad reality faced by those responsible for the unseen back-end operations that keep the internet functioning smoothly is the land-based optical fiber cable system carrying some three-fourths of the world's internet traffic have reached their upper limits and can't transfer more information using light.
Laying down more optical fiber cables might solve problem but this will increase Internet access costs and bills, perhaps by as much as two times. Experts warn the internet is heading towards a fatal "capacity crunch" if it fails to keep up with global demand for ever faster data.
Adding more demand to already overtaxed fiber optic networks is the current boom in internet TV; the growing popularity of streaming services and more powerful computers.
"It is harder and harder to keep ahead," said Professor Andrew Ellis of Aston University in Birmingham to the Daily Mail.
Engineers have managed to keep ahead of the burgeoning demand for high-speed or broadband internet access by increasing internet speeds 50-fold over the last decade alone to some 100 megabits per second. In 2005, broadband internet had a maximum speed of 2 Mbps in many parts of the United Kingdom.
"We are starting to reach the point in the research lab where we can't get any more data into a single optical fiber," said Prof. Ellis.
"The deployment to market is about six to eight years behind the research lab -- so within eight years that will be it, we can't get any more data in. Demand is increasingly catching up. It is growing again and again, and it is harder and harder to keep ahead".
"Unless we come forward with really radical ideas, we are going to see costs dramatically increase".
Prof. Ellis believes we'll have reached our limit within eight years.