Closing the Generation Gap: Satisfying Servers, Providers, and Visitors of Hyper-Content

We consider the problem of building a robust and efficient infrastructure for hyper-content. Existing server-only architectures are susceptible to flash crowds, while other peer-to-peer (p2p) solutions may not yet be economically viable because of their voluntary model. We start with the assumption that any infrastructure has to satisfy three types of key players the content provider, the server, and the visitor. Our solution allows the provider to specify a pricing function, optimizes resource usage and avoids flash crowds at the server, and keeps response times low for the visitor. The solution adapts at run-time in order to satisfy these requirements. With low visitor concurrency, our solution reduces to a server-only solution. With rising concurrency, more and more hyper-content gets distributed and shared out among visitors and providers. This leads us to believe that the “right” infrastructure for hyper-content may lie somewhere in between the current two extremes of server-only and p2p.