Mitigating server-side congestion in the Internet through pseudoserving

Server-side congestion arises when a large number of users wish to retrieve files from a server over a short period of time, Under such conditions, us ers are in a unique position to benefit enormously by sharing retrieved fil es. Pseudoserving, a new paradigm for Internet access, provides incentives for users to contribute to the speedy dissemination of server fines through a contract set by a "superserver." Under this contract, the superserver gr ants a user a referral to where a copy of the requested file may be retriev ed in exchange for the user's assurance to serve other users for a specifie d period of time. Simulations that consider only network congestion occurri ng near the server show that: 1) pseudoserving is effective because it self -scales to handle very high request rates; 2) pseudoserving is feasible bec ause a user who participates as a pseudoserver benefits enormously in retur n for a relatively small contribution of the user's resources; 3) pseudoser ving is robust under realistic user behavior because it can tolerate a larg e percentage of contract breaches; and 4) pseudoserving can exploit localit y to reduce usage of network resources. Experiments performed on a local ar ea network that account for the processing of additional layers of protocol s and the finite processing and storage capacities of the server and the cl ients, corroborate the simulation results. They also demonstrate the benefi ts of exploiting network locality in reducing download times and network tr affic while making referrals to a pseudoserver. Limitations of pseudoservin g and potential solutions to them are also discussed in this paper.