Content-addressed filesharing system which optimises to reduce IXP congestion.
Q: What's the point?
- Internet exchanges are consistently reaching new peaks of traffic flow
- This occurs when a group of clients all request data from a similar set of origin servers
- Could we instruct clients which are already in the same Autonomous System to share the data between themselves if possible?
Yes, read the paper.
Q: Does it work?
Yes, inu is fault-tolerant, scalable, and, congestion-avoidant (for IXPs).
An evaluation is performed in the paper.
Q: Is this production-ready?
No!
Q: Can I still use this to share files?
Well yeah, but, the filesharing component of the system is not especially ergonomic. Consider using good ol' BitTorrent if you're looking for something similar.
Q: Wait... so, is inu useful at all?
Yes, as a research idea, not as a fully fledged practical solution.
inu shines due to its approach to routing, which leverages existing best-effort infrastructure to be simple, effective and maintainable. These capabilities can be integrated into existing systems to enhance their performance.