NASA Internet Speed 91 GBPS - The Reality

If you have been on the internet, you must have definitely seen this photo where a claim is made that NASA Internet speed is 91 Gbps. Let’s see what it is.

Like many people, you might also have believed this to be true. Though as strange as it may sound, This is not completely false. There is some truth to this claim but ultimately this isn’t right.

The Claim

First of all, we should see that the NASA internet speed mentioned in the viral image I have shared above. It says the speed is 91 GBPS. The problem here is that internet speeds are not measured in GBPS(Giga-Byte Per Second), they are measured in Gbps(Giga-Bits Per Second). The capital B means Byte, while the small b means Bit.
The difference between the two is that 1 Giga-Byte = 8 Giga-Bit. If we follow that, the speed would be 728 Giga-Bits. Which would be impossible, even for NASA.
 

The Reality

As I already said. This claim is not completely false. The reality behind this claim is that NASA had done a test where it achieved 91 Gbps. The test was done between the SC13 supercomputer and NASA’s Servers in Goddard. But it is important to note that this test involved only these 2 Machines, so it is actually just LAN(Local Area Network). The internet we use is made possible through WAN and MAN(Wide and Metropolitan Area Network). LAN involves only some devices in the local area whereas MAN and WAN constitute networks of big regions.
For example, If you connect your laptop to another laptop with a 1 Mbps wire, you both will have a 100 Mbps link. However, that does not mean you have an internet connection of 100 Mbps.
I hope this has cleared the legendary myth. So next time you see it on the internet, do not share it. You would rather share this articles with your friends to educate them about it.