Information Servers: A Scaleable Communication Paradigm for Wide Area Networks and the Information Superhighway

The predominant use of point-to-point communication protocols on the global Internet, combined with the communication patterns imposed by the World Wide Web, make inefficient use of the Internet's increasingly scarce network bandwidth. While more network fiber helps to belay the impact of these inefficiencies, ultimately more intelligent coordination of data distribution and the use of more efficient distribution protocols will be necessary to support the user population of the Information Superhighway. To this end, we propose the notion of Information Servers. Using the publish-subscribe paradigm, Information Servers distribute information in such way to minimize network traffic. 1 Introduction The primary challenge presented by the Information Superhighway is efficient information dissemination. Simple, point-to-point protocols may be adequate for non-demanding functions such as electronic mail, but such protocols are unable to meet the requirements of the rapidly growing global net..