Internet exchange points throughout the northeast United States reported traffic slowdowns this week due to a polar vortex sweeping the region. Nighttime low temperatures well below zero have wreaked havoc with Internet backbone circuits and routers due to a little known problem; the data velocity viscosity gradient, or DVVG.
Many people are unaware the viscosity of data increases as temperatures fall. While normally this is a non-issue, it can cause issues during winter’s coldest days. At 10 degrees Fahrenheit for example, data flows 23% slower than at 40 degrees. Even worse, the problem accelerates as the thermometer falls. At zero, data flows 57% slower than at 40 degrees. That’s the DVVG in action, says Barletta Birgeneau, Professor of Physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The past few days have been a prime example of this phenomenon.
Kevin Deering, Network Operations Center (NOC) manager at the Boston Internet Exchange said “We’ve had some packets stranded overnight, but believe the worst is over. We even sent out a couple of teams with heat guns and electric blankets, trying to warm up critical fiber bundles. We’re doing the best we can but we need help from the community as well. We saw a 393 TB file transfer coming through the 40 Gig Worcester loop last night, and that really jammed things up. It’s just like a manure spreader jackknifed on the Santa Ana. Companies need to understand that when conditions are like this, data should just stay on premises and avoid the chaos.”
Why aren’t fiber lines buried deeper, like water lines, to avoid the freezing temps? Reached by phone at his Florida home, CenturyLink COO Jim Frigaski could only say “Yeah, we probably should have done that.”
The Internet is designed to route around trouble, but that doesn’t help much when all circuits leading in and out of an area face the same issue. Deering sees hope in the forecast though, with a warming trend on the way.
