The project will develop a network platform for collaborative applications that is scalable, efficient, reliable and secure
Large-scale collaborative applications have the potential to play a major role in defining the future of the digital economy. Collaborative applications have been used by organisations for activities ranging from online training and virtual conferencing to online gaming and social networking. Service providers use client-server architecture to provide these applications. Collaborative applications such as webcasting, video-on-demand and network gaming are often delivered to millions of internet users. This involves the use of one or more dedicated servers deployed at strategic locations in the network, which users connect to and request services. This approach has several drawbacks:
- Strain network and server resources as more and more users join the application.
- High deployment cost as new servers have to be installed to manage the increase in demand.
- Central servers are a single point of failure and require constant maintenance.
These problems have forced telecommunications and service providers to explore alternative methods for managing the network in an effort to provide these services efficiently.
What will this research achieve?
The aim of this project is to explore the peer-to-peer paradigm as an alternative technique for network management and content delivery. It will attempt to solve the problems of the client-server approach so that service providers can offer large-scale collaborative services efficiently and economically. The project team has developed Badumna, a decentralised network engine for supporting scalable collaborative applications. Badumna's goal is to provide a network engine that is highly scalable, reliable, robust and secure.
Badumna enables the creation of highly scalable collaborative applications using minimal operator owned infrastructure and network resources by forming a peer-to-peer network of all the users and distributing the data processing across the network. Servers are only used for operations that require arbitration, authentication and intrusion detection.
Who will benefit?
Internet service providers will be able to deliver services more cost effectively and users will be able to access a wider variety of services. Badumna will be able to offer the following benefits to service providers:
- Lower the operating cost of the application significantly.
- Increase the number of users that can be supported by the application.
- Improve the user experience.
- Secure interface with fully encrypted data management.
Key features
- Reduces hosting costs of MMO applications by upto 80%.
- Automatic scaling as the application grows, therefore supports flash-crowds.
- Lowers greenhouse gas emissions by eliminating the dependence on data centers.
Project update
For more details on the technology and project news, please visit: www.badumna.com
Research team
Santosh Kulkarni (Project Leader)
Scott Douglas
David Churchill
Artem Vorobiev