Wi-Stitch: Content Delivery in Converged Edge Networks

Abstract

Wi-Fi, the most commonly used access technology at the very edge, supports download speeds that are orders of magnitude faster than the average home broadband or cellular data connection. Furthermore, it is extremely common for users to be within reach of their neighbours' Wi-Fi access points. Given the skewed nature of interest in content items, it is likely that some of these neighbours are interested in the same items as the users. We sketch the design of Wi-Stitch, an architecture that exploits these observations to construct a highly efficient content sharing infrastructure at the very edge and show through analysis of a real workload that it can deliver substantial (up to 70%) savings in network traffic. The Wi-Stitch approach can be used both by clients of fixed-line broadband, as well as mobile devices obtaining indoors access in converged networks.