Tango or Square Dance? How Tightly Should we Integrate Network Functionality in Browsers?
Alex Davidson (Brave Software), Matthias Frei (ETH Zurich), Marten, Gartner (OVGU Magdeburg), Hamed Haddadi (Brave Software, Imperial College, London), Jordi Subir\`a Nieto (ETH Zurich), Adrian Perrig (ETH Zurich),, Philipp Winter (Brave Software), Fran\c{c}ois Wirz (ETH Zurich)

TL;DR
This paper explores the optimal layer for integrating network functionality, advocating for browsers as a promising platform for network innovation, demonstrated through a geo-fenced browsing prototype using SCION.
Contribution
It introduces a novel approach to embed network features directly into browsers, leveraging path-aware networking for user-driven, OS-agnostic functionalities.
Findings
Geo-fenced browsing is feasible with minimal performance impact.
Browser-based network functionality can be effectively implemented using SCION.
The approach offers a new layer of network innovation directly within browsers.
Abstract
The question at which layer network functionality is presented or abstracted remains a research challenge. Traditionally, network functionality was either placed into the core network, middleboxes, or into the operating system -- but recent developments have expanded the design space to directly introduce functionality into the application (and in particular into the browser) as a way to expose it to the user. Given the context of emerging path-aware networking technology, an interesting question arises: which layer should handle the new features? We argue that the browser is becoming a powerful platform for network innovation, where even user-driven properties can be implemented in an OS-agnostic fashion. We demonstrate the feasibility of geo-fenced browsing using a prototype browser extension, realized by the SCION path-aware networking architecture, without introducing any…
Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.
Taxonomy
TopicsSoftware-Defined Networks and 5G · Software System Performance and Reliability · Network Traffic and Congestion Control
