WebCloud: Recruiting web browsers for content distribution

TL;DR

WebCloud proposes a novel browser-based content distribution system that leverages social network users' browsers to serve content directly, reducing reliance on centralized servers and improving content exchange efficiency.

Contribution

It introduces WebCloud, a new system that repurposes web browsers for content distribution in social networks, addressing limitations of traditional centralized infrastructure.

Findings

WebCloud can fetch content from friends' browsers instead of servers.

Prototype deployment demonstrates practical feasibility.

Simulations and microbenchmarks show improved content delivery efficiency.

Abstract

We are at the beginning of a shift in how content is created and exchanged over the web. While content was previously created primarily by a small set of entities, today, individual users -- empowered by devices like digital cameras and services like online social networks -- are creating content that represents a significant fraction of Internet traffic. As a result, content today is increasingly generated and exchanged at the edge of the network. Unfortunately, the existing techniques and infrastructure that are still used to serve this content, such as centralized content distribution networks, are ill-suited for these new patterns of content exchange. In this paper, we take a first step towards addressing this situation by introducing WebCloud, a content distribution system for online social networking sites that works by re- purposing web browsers to help serve content. In other words, when a user browses content, WebCloud tries to fetch it from one of that user's friend's browsers, instead of from the social networking site. The result is a more direct exchange of content ; essentially, WebCloud leverages the spatial and temporal locality of interest between social network users. Because WebCloud is built using techniques already present in many web browsers, it can be applied today to many social networking sites. We demonstrate the practicality of WebCloud with microbenchmarks, simulations, and a prototype deployment.