The number of smartphones, tablets and other network-connected
gadgets will outnumber humans by the end of the year. Perhaps
more significantly, the faster and more powerful mobile devices
hitting the market annually are producing and consuming content
at unprecedented levels. Global mobile data grew 70 percent in
2012, according to a recent report from Cisco, which makes a lot
of the gear that runs the Internet. Yet the capacity of the
world’s networking infrastructure is finite, leaving many to
wonder when we will hit the upper limit, and what to do when
that happens. There are ways to boost capacity of course, such
as adding cables, packing those cables with more data-carrying
optical fibers and off-loading traffic onto smaller satellite
networks, but these steps simply delay the inevitable. The
solution is to make the infrastructure smarter. Two main
components would be needed: computers and other devices that can
filter their content before tossing it onto the network, along
with a network that better un