[Colloq] Thesis Proposal - Rethinking the Architecture of the Web - Liang Zhang- Thursday, Oct 22nd, 2-3 pm WVH 366

[DiFazio, Danielle]

Title: Rethinking the Architecture of the Web
Speaker: Liang Zhang
Date: Thursday, Oct 22nd 
Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm

Location: 366WVH

Abstract:

Over the past two decades, web technologies have evolved dramatically and have changed what we see and how we interact with the web. The web browser is no longer a static HTML renderer, but a virtual machine that can execute JavaScript and understand HTML and CSS for presentation. Web services, ranging from online social networks, to video hubs, to e-commerce sites, enable content sharing on an unprecedented scale. However, despite these massive changes in the web, the web is implicitly build around the longstanding premise of a client-server architecture, where web browsers are clients and service providers play the server role. As a result, the service providers have a significant monetary burden, but often keep their service free for users. Instead the service providers often monetize the content that users upload to support advertising. Thus, the architecture of the web has significant implications for the privacy, security, and economics of the entire web ecosystem.

In this thesis proposal, I aim to rethink the basic architecture of the web by leveraging the advances in web browsers and cloud services. My thesis focuses on three fundamental aspects in web systems design: first, how content is being served? I address low-cost scalable content delivery problem with Maygh, a system that builds a content distribution network from client web browsers, without the need for additional plug-ins or client-side software. The result is an organically scalable system that distributes the cost of serving web content across the users of a web site. Second, can we provide users with greater control and privacy over their data? I give users control of their data and allow data to be shared by introducing Priv.io, a new approach to building web-based services that let users take full control of their data. Priv.io composes web services with user provided storage and stitches applications together using web browsers for computation. And third, how can users run long-lived computations while their web browsers may go on and offline? To address the problem, I propose Picocenter, a hosting infrastructure that supports long-lived, mostly-idle applications in cloud environments. The end result of my work enables new types of applications that give users better control over their data while maintaining low running expenses.

Committee:

Prof. David Choffnes
Dr. Dave Levin (External Examiner, University of Maryland)
Prof. Alan Mislove (Advisor)
Prof. Ravi Sundaram