We introduce the notion of network flow buffering for direct HTTP streaming of web-based video clips, making it a more viable alternative to specialized streaming protocols, and in some cases making it a superior approach. A network flow buffer is simply a remote buffer that is dynamically deployed between a Web client and server, and that actively or passively regulates the flow of streaming video data. Network flow buffering is a simple approach to improving the performance of Web-based streaming video by buffering at a location where it can operate more effectively, providing benefits such as supplementing client buffering capacity, smoothing differences between WAN and LAN bandwidths, regulating data flow to a client, and supporting personalized caching to improve restart times. Network flow buffering is easily implemented as a Customizer in a middleware architecture we have developed (and reported on in WWW02) called the Web Stream Customizer Architecture (WSCA). The WSCA has a number of desirable features for supporting network flow buffering, including the dynamic deployment and relocation of software intermediaries between clients and servers that allow them to customize Web transactions, an extended usage model that supports customization of HTTP streaming and non-HTTP communication, and two points of control (one at the intermediary and one at or near the client) which can be used to supply feedback on conditions at the client to improve a network flow buffer▒s performance.

Pre-2018 CSE ID: CS2004-0776

We present a new Web middleware architecture that allows users to customize their view of the Web for optimal interaction and system operation when using non-traditional client machines such as wireless palmtops. Our Web Stream Customizers (WSC) are dynamically deployable and can be strategically located to achieve improvements in performance, reliability, or security. An important design feature is that Customizers provide two points of control in the communication path between client and server, supporting adaptive system-based and content-based customization. Our architecture exploits HTTP's proxy capabilities, allowing Customizers to be seamlessly integrated with the basic Web transaction model. We describe the WSC architecture and implementation, and illustrate its use with three non-trivial, adaptive Customizer applications that we have built. The overhead in our implementation which we present is small and tolerable, and we believe is outweighed by the benefits that Customizers provide.

Pre-2018 CSE ID: CS2001-0692

We present an architecture for Web Stream Customization (WSC) which allows users to customize their view of the Web for optimal interaction and system operation when using non-traditional client machines such as wireless palmtops. Our Web stream customizers are dynamically deployable and can be strategically located to achieve improvements in performance, reliability, or security. Customizers provide two points of control in the communication path between client and server, supporting adaptive system-based and content-based customization. Our architecture exploits HTTP's proxy capabilities, allowing Customizers to be seamlessly integrated with the basic Web transaction model. We describe the WSC architecture and its implementation, and illustrate its use with three non-trivial, adaptive Customizer applications that we have built. Our performance evaluation of the system shows that the overhead introduced is small and tolerable, and is outweighed by the benefits that Customizers provide.

Pre-2018 CSE ID: CS2001-0691

Mobile Agents are a newly emerging network application technology in which programs can travel throughout a network to run on machines other than the originating host. Extensive research on Mobile Agents has been ongoing for many years and many Mobile Agent systems have been developed. However, there has not yet been any widespread acceptance of Mobile Agents as a viable technology by the Internet community. We examine the existing forms of mobile code technology and suggest using a limited form of Mobile Agent in conjunction with proxy servers for the purpose of client customization. We explore the issues of security, flexibility, deployability, and the utility of client customization using mobile agents and proxies, with the aim of developing a practical system that can be integrated into today's Internet. The benefits of using these agents for customization include performance improvements through the reduction of network latency, as well as improving the client's interface to distributed data sources through merging, filtering, and custom displays.

Pre-2018 CSE ID: CS2000-0641