Adaptive Edge Content Delivery Networks for Web-Scale File Systems

Abstract

The InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) is an hypermedia distribution protocol, addressed by content and identities. It aims to make the web faster, safer, and more open. The JavaScript implementation of IPFS runs on the browser, benefiting from the mass adoption potential that it yields. Startrail takes advantage of the IPFS ecosystem and strives to further evolve it, making it more scalable and performant through the implementation of an adaptive network caching mechanism. Our solution aims to add resilience to IPFS and improve its overall scalability, by avoiding overloading the nodes providing highly popular content, particularly during flash-crowd-like conditions where popularity and demand grow suddenly. We add a novel crucial key component to enable an IPFS-based decentralized Content Distribution Network (CDN). Following a peer-to-peer architecture, it runs on a scalable, highly available network of untrusted nodes that distribute immutable authenticated objects which are cached progressively towards the sources of requests.