Bounded-Latency Content Distribution: Feasibility and Evaluation

Abstract

This paper investigates the performance of a content distribution network designed to provide bounded content access latency. Content can be divided into multiple classes with different configurable per-class delay bounds. The network uses a simple distributed algorithm to dynamically select subsets of its proxy servers for different classes such that a global per-class delay bound is achieved on content access. The content distribution algorithm is implemented and tested on PlanetLab, a world-wide distributed Internet testbed. Evaluation results demonstrate that, despite Internet delay variability, subsecond delay bounds (of 200-500 ms) can be guaranteed with a very high probability at only a moderate content replication cost. The distribution algorithm achieves a four to fivefold reduction in the number of response-time violations compared to prior content distribution approaches that attempt to minimize average latency. To the authors' knowledge, this paper presents the first wide-area performance evaluation of an algorithm designed to bound maximum content access latency, as opposed to optimizing an average performance metric.