on the issue of proxy-caching and new technologies

Mon Jun 29 14:49:26 UTC 1998

Alan Hannan writes:
> 
>   DWDM and huge fiber builds will get us part of the way to handling
>   internet growth, but we need to find ways to utilize upper-layer 
>   tweaks to do more with less.
> 
>   -alan
> 
> 

Indeed.

(The technical merits of DIGEX's current approach not withstanding)

No amount of capacity upgrades will obviate the need for an intelligent
architecture for content distribution on the net. Utilization will
explode to consume all bandwidth available and in the absence of an
elegant architecture will do so rather wastefully.

Most sites on the web are currently misdeployed/incorrectly-located
on the network. Techniques that prevents unwarranted replication 
of data and bring the content to the user rather than the user to
the content will bring about more efficient use of bandwidth while
increasing performance for all users. These need to be complemented
with techniques to address the concerns of other constituents, like
marketeers.

--pushpendra

Pushpendra Mohta          pushp at cerf.net        +1 619 812 3908
TCG CERFnet               http://www.cerf.net   +1 619 812 3995 (FAX)