Globule: a User-Centric Content Delivery Network

Web users often experience slow document transfers caused by poorly performing servers and overloaded network links. A classical solution to this problem is to replicate documents across the Internet and serve client requests at a nearby replica. Content Delivery Networks (CDNs), such as Akamai, offer such replication services to content providers by offering them a worldwide distributed platform to host their content. This poster presents Globule, a content delivery network to be operated by end-users themselves. Instead of delegating content delivery to an external company, content providers can organize together to trade their (relatively cheap) local resources against (valuable) remote resources. As a result, a user participating in the Globule network is offered a distributed set of servers in which his/her Web content can be replicated. Globule is designed in the form of an add-on module for the Apache Web server. To replicate their content, content providers only need to compile an extra module into their Apache server and edit a simple configuration file. Globule automatically replicates the site’s content and redirects clients to a nearby replica. Servers also monitor each other’s availability, so that client requests are not redirected to a failing replica. Future versions will allow automatic replica placement, replication of dynamic content and security measures. Globule prototypes are available under an open-source licence at http://www.globule.org/.