PSEUDO-SERVING - A USER-RESPONSIBLE PARADIGM FOR INTERNET ACCESS

As demand for bandwidth on the Internet continues to rocket, it become s increasingly important to expand the existing infrastructure and to fairly allocate scarce network resources to improve user welfare. This paper introduces a paradigm for accessing information on the Internet whereby previously unused resources, those of the users themselves, p lay a central role in allowing users to bypass network congestion unde r ''flash-crowd'' conditions, where a large number of users from many networks retrieve the same set of files from a server over a short per iod of time. Simulations demonstrate the feasibility of this approach: a user obtains speedy access to files on servers under flash-crowd co nditions in exchange for holding the file for a short period of time, within which, she serves at most two other users. (C) 1997 Published b y Elsevier Science B.V.