Investigating the Individuality/Scalability Tradeoff in the Provision of Networked Services

网络服务是信息革命的核心。这项工作的重点是两个特点的网络服务：1）可扩展性：服务的能力，以处理大量的终端用户与低的每用户成本，和2）个性化：服务的能力，以处理不同的要求，因为异质性的网络路径导致最终用户。 虽然高水平的个性化和可扩展性是任何网络服务的理想特征，但它们通常是相互冲突的目标，需要相互权衡。本研究旨在从网络基础设施的角度来研究这种权衡。 该项目旨在回答：1）在使用多播通信的服务中，是否可以在以受控方式牺牲可扩展性的同时增加个性化水平？ 2)在使用单播通信的服务中，是否有可能在控制牺牲多少个性的同时提高可伸缩性？ 3)有没有可能不需要将服务标记为单播或多播，而将决定适当网络支持的负担转移到“通用”接口层？ 为了回答这些问题的研究旨在开发网络支持机制，以导航的个性/可扩展性频谱，使组播服务的能力，更加个性化和单播服务的能力，更具可扩展性。 该研究将包括调查的具体情况下，增加了一个措施的个性化组播服务和具体的情况下，使单播服务更具可扩展性，通过共享资源，通过组播和请求单播服务器。这项研究将包括视频分发、网络信息提供和多媒体点播（直播和流媒体）等服务。 这项工作将考虑互联网以及ATM风格的网络，在ATM架构上的互联网的一些重点。

Networked services are at the heart of the information revolution. This work focuses on two characteristics of a networked service: 1) scalability: the ability of the service to handle a large number of end users with low per-user cost, and 2) individuality: the ability of the service to deal with differing requirements imposed because of heterogeneity of network paths leading to the end-users. Although a high level of both individuality and scalability are desirable features of any networked service, they are normally conflicting goals that need to be traded-off with each other. This research aims to investigate this tradeoff from the networking infrastructure's viewpoint. This project seeks to answer: 1) In services using multicast communication, is it possible to add a level of individuality while sacrificing scalability in a controlled manner? 2) In services using unicast communication, is it possible to improve scalability while controlling how much individuality is sacrificed? 3) Is it possible not to require the labeling of services as unicast or multicast and move the burden of deciding the appropriate network support to a "generic" interface layer? To answer these questions the research seeks to develop network support mechanisms to navigate the individuality/scalability spectrum, giving multicast services the ability to be more individualized and unicast services the ability to be more scalable. The research will consist of investigating specific instances of adding a measure of individuality to multicast services and specific instances of making unicast services more scalable by sharing resources through multicast and requesting batching at servers. The research will include services such as video distribution, Web information delivery and multimedia-on-demand (live and streamed). The work will consider Internet as well as ATM-style networking with some emphasis on Internet over ATM architectures.