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Software allows neighbors to improve Internet access at no extra cost
James E.
Kloeppel, Physical Sciences Editor
217-244-1073; kloeppel@uiuc.edu
4/27/2006
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. —
Computer scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
have developed software that enables the sharing of high-speed Internet
connections without compromising security or privacy. The software can
improve Internet connectivity in residential areas at no additional
cost.
“Significantly improved speed and the ‘always on’
feature have been driving the rapid spread of broadband Internet access
in many residential areas,” said Haiyun Luo, a professor of computer
science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “More
than 56 percent of homes in the United States already have Internet
access, and more than half of those homes are using Wi-Fi wireless home
networks.”
A typical residential user accesses his broadband home connection about
12 to 15 hours per week, Luo said. “So, while the Internet connection
is always on, most of the time it sits idle.” Luo would like to
see that idleness put to good use by benefiting other users, and he
and graduate student Nathanael Thompson came up with a way to do it.
Luo and Thompson have developed a software framework called PERM (Practical
End-host collaborative Residential Multihoming) that allows neighbors
to pool their Internet access and thereby improve both performance and
resilience.
“PERM exploits the diversity of broadband Internet access in residential
areas to improve connectivity in a managed way,” Luo said. “Our
design requires no support outside the user’s wireless router,
and is immediately deployable.”
By pooling all available Internet connections, neighbors can enhance
their Internet connectivity at no additional cost. That is, if neighbors
are willing to share.
“PERM represents a paradigm shift in the Internet user community,”
Luo said. “Until now, most users have been unwilling to share
their wireless connections for fear of losing security and privacy.
We offer a solution that ensures mutual benefit, security and privacy.”
The sharing of Internet connections is open only to registered users
who, in exchange for using connections belonging to others, must offer
the use of their own. This “peer-to-peer” sharing concept
has enormous potential, with millions of possible nodes, Luo said.
Within PERM, flow-scheduling algorithms select the best connection from
those available. In addition, higher performance is achieved by selecting
and using multiple connections when appropriate. The software framework
also provides a service scheduler, which gives the owner priority over
his wireless router and reports any misuse by others.
But the scope of PERM is still limited: Neighbors can only benefit from
sharing when they are around each other’s homes. The next step
is to expand beyond neighborhoods and take collaborative Internet access
on the road, literally.
“Wireless routers are necessarily location-based,” Luo said.
“But the peer-to-peer sharing concept can just as easily be used
between cars, or between homes and cars, as between homes. As more users
join the system, the more powerful the system will become.”
Thompson will present the peer-to-peer Internet sharing concept and
flow-scheduling algorithms at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers INFOCOM 2006 meeting in Barcelona, Spain, April 23-29. The
University of Illinois funded the work.
The 3.2 megabyte PERM
file can be downloaded free of charge from the PERM project.
Editor’s
note: To reach Haiyun Luo, call 217-244-0527; e-mail: haiyun@uiuc.edu.
