Traffic Optimization at the Application Layer – A Cooperative Approach : The tussle between applications and the physical network infrastructure, and the Application-Layer Traffic Optimization (ALTO) system as solution

Abstract

This paper aims to tackle the frictions between user applications and the physical infrastructure where they reside. In the face of rising network traffic and stricter application demands, a better understanding is needed on how ISPs should manage their resources, and likewise how applications need to act, so the Internet of the future can run accordingly to user and provider needs. As a solution, the main focus of this work is the Application-Layer Traffic Optimization working group, which was formed by the Internet Engineering Task Force to explore standardizations for network information retrieval. This paper firstly begins with an introduction of the historical tussle between applications and network providers. It then presents the Application-Layer Traffic Optimization project as a viable solution in the form of an implemented system, inspired and extending the original working group's specification, and then validates its usefulness in a simulated scenario, when compared to classical alternatives.