An integrated architecture for the scalable delivery of semi-dynamic Web content

Abstract

The competition on clients attention requires sites to update their content frequently. As a result, a large percentage of Web pages are semi-dynamic, i.e., change quite often and stay static between changes. The cost of maintaining consistency for such pages discourages caching solutions. We suggest here an integrated architecture for the scalable delivery of frequently changing hot pages. Our scheme enables sites to dynamically select whether to cyclically multicast a hot page or to unicast it, and to switch between multicast and unicast mechanisms in a transparent way. Our scheme defines a new protocol, called h.t.t.p.m. In addition, it uses currently deployed protocols, and dynamically directs browsers seeking for a URL to multicast channels, while using existing DNS mechanisms. Thus, we enable sites to deliver content to a growing number of users at less cost and during denial of service attacks, while reducing load on core links. We report simulation results that demonstrate the advantages of the integrated architecture, and its significant impact on server and network load, as well as clients delay.