Towards peer-to-peer caching techniques for web resources

Abstract

When dealing with web applications, response and loading time can often be prolonged due to many factors such as large amounts of content which need to be sent to the client and excessive load on the server which causes responses to be processed and sent in a slower manner. These reasons often lead to website operators having to invest in scaling up their systems so as to handle larger server loads. Another strategy used to decrease server load is that of caching resources within clients' browsers in anticipation of future re-usability. Once a resource is cached, it is accessible only by the client at which it is cached yet it is a common occurrence that a group of clients require the same web resource. The idea of sharing cached resources between clients which are likely to access the same resources would make sense as it would further decrease server load, yet as standard implementations go, browsers do not currently have a way to share cached resources between them. With the recent introduction of browser-to-browser communication protocols which allow browsers to communicate directly with each other, the sharing of cached resources directly between clients has become a possibility. This dissertation explores the use of browser-to-browser communication to share cached web resources between a group of clients and more specifically, browsers. It also focuses on designing an approach which will allow website operators to incorporate a transparent content distribution network into their website so that website visitors will be able to share static web content between themselves in a peer-to-peer manner while reducing server loads.