Using Content-Derived Names for Caching and Software Distribution
Using Content-Derived Names for Caching and Software Distribution
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Date
1998-10-15
Authors
Hollingsworth, Jeffrey K.
Miller, Ethan L.
Advisor
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Abstract
Maintaining replicated data in wide area information services such as
the World Wide Web is a difficult problem. Ensuring that the correct
versions of libraries and images are installed for application programs
presents similar challenges. In this paper, we present a simple scheme
to facilitate both of these tasks using content-derived names (CDNs).
Content-based naming uses digital signatures to compute a name for an
object based only on its content.
CDNs can be applied to several common problems of modern computer
systems. Caching on the World Wide Web is simplified by allowing
references to an object by its content rather than just its location.
In a similar fashion, applications can request library objects by their
content without having to rely on the presence of a file system
hierarchy that the application recognizes. Further, applications that
require different versions of an object can coexist peacefully on the
same machine. While this idea is still in its early stages, we present
experimental evidence from a study of World Wide Web objects that
indicates that CDNs could reduce network traffic by allowing requests
to be satisfied by differently-named duplicates with the same
contents.
(Also cross-referenced as UMIACS-TR-96-55)