Hello All,

In doing some testing at the HQ, we took a couple of screen shots to illustrate the type of download speeds that Autobahn helps achieve. In one of our test setups we’ve got a standard, consumer Comcast connection, which they recently gussied up with speed burst capability.

One of the cool things that we noticed is that with Autobahn running, we were able use that speed burst consistently to hit an incredible 25 Mbps download speed multiple times over the duration of video downloads. That’s over 6x Comcast’s regular download speed.

To give some perspective, with 25 Mbps, you could stream 20 simultaneous broadcast quality videos, or 4 simultaneous HD quality videos.

This first graph shows network utilization while we downloaded “The 3 Musketeers”, a 1.2 GB feature length movie, using Autobahn. Each vertical line on the graph represents 6 seconds, and the download was completed in just 9 minutes and 18 seconds. Click to see the full image . . .

Additionally, here’s a network graph showing a download of one of our favorites, “Chappelle’s Show.” On the left is a download with Autobahn running - you can see that it hits peaks of 25 Mbps. On the right is a download without Autobahn, which maxed out at under 5 Mbps and took a great deal longer to download. Click to see the full image . . .

Autobahn lets users get the most out of their broadband connection, and shows the potential for speed and video quality over the Internet. So, what’s the max speed you’ve a seen on your connection?

A new release of Autobahn is available that officially supports iTunes audiobook acceleration. Your Autobahn client will notify you that an update is available, so make sure to install the update to get the most out of Autobahn.

Some of you have asked about podcast acceleration in Autobahn. We just want to let you know that this feature will be available soon. The Autobahn client will inform you when a new version becomes available, so make sure you install the update and enjoy your podcasts!

We got some excellent feedback after yesterday’s announcement, but there were a lot of people asking exactly how we speed up your iTunes downloads. The short answer is that we make multiple, parallel connections back to the iTunes music store for each download.

A single TCP connection, no matter how wide the pipe, hits startlingly low theoretical throughput limits with just a little bit of packet loss or latency. Creating multiple connections back to iTunes allows Autobahn to overcome those limitations and allow your downloads to approach the inbound maximum on your last mile.

Creating multiple connections does not increase the total bandwidth load on Apple, it just condenses one user’s same number of downloaded bytes into a narrower time window. Even if everyone downloading from iTunes used Autobahn Accelerator, Apple wouldn’t spend a penny more on bandwidth rate in Gbps wouldn’t increase. We’re able to accelerate iTunes downloads without any server side support because they were already 100% standard HTTP.

As to who should expect to see acceleration, the short answer is: everyone. International and high latency users can see dramatic improvement — with these techniques we’ve seen as fast as 30x increases for some locations in Australia. WiFi can also be a considerable contributor to packet loss and latency. You’re going to get the best performance with Autobahn on a wired connection, but this will also improve performance over wireless noticeably.

Hello iTunes Lovers,

Today marks the first release in a series of Autobahn accelerators, this one focusing on downloads and previews through the iTunes store. By installing Autobahn, you will get blazing fast downloads of music and movies, and seamless viewing of video previews. You can download Autobahn for iTunes at www.getautobahn.com.

The resounding success of the Apple iTunes store shows the power of giving consumers what they want, when they want it, wherever they want to go. Our mission is to make downloads through iTunes even faster, while introducing some new tricks and functionality enabled by Autobahn. Right off the bat, you’ll be able to monitor the downloads speeds you’ve achieved with Autobahn. Just check out the performance indicator that pops up from the Autobahn icon in your system tray.

Stay tuned for more blog posts talking about some cool tricks, and please use this blog to tell us about your experience with Autobahn.

Additionally, we’d like to hear about your favorite websites or applications that you’d like to see accelerated or improved with Autobahn.

Happy Downloading,

The Swarmcast Team