It鈥檚 not often that you get to go faster by avoiding the superhighway, but soon students in Pakistan will be able to download big files faster by avoiding the internet.
Instead of using expensive broadband or slow, unreliable dial-up connections, students at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) will try out a new system, dubbed 鈥減oor man鈥檚 broadband鈥� (PMB). It allows computers to link to each other directly for faster downloads, and it works as long as at least one computer running the trial software has already downloaded the desired file from the internet. The system should also reduce the university鈥檚 risk of overloading the bandwidth supplied by its internet service providers (ISPs).
PMB is a mixture of peer-to-peer (P2P) software 鈥� touted as the internet鈥檚 future (快猫短视频, 13 October, p 28) 鈥� and pre-internet techniques, whereby users dialled other computers directly to exchange files. It is based on P2P software called BitTorrent, which allows computers to talk directly to each other and swap chunks of files. The snag is that BitTorrent requires that all computers be connected to the internet to swap files 鈥� a luxury in Pakistan. So LUMS computer scientist Umar Saif tweaked BitTorrent to create the new system.
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Saif鈥檚 version allows computers to 鈥済ossip鈥� about which PCs they have called in the past, and which computer had what files. Gossiping happens every time computers connect to make a transfer, ensuring the entire network is kept updated.
鈥淭he computers 鈥榞ossip鈥� about which PCs they have called in the past鈥�
PMB users still surf the web as usual, but when they try to download a large file, the software checks its gossip logs to see if it can call another computer directly for a faster download. 鈥淭rials so far show this can be more than five times faster than the internet [alone],鈥� says Saif.
The system will mainly help in the download of software patches and free educational materials, like MIT鈥檚 Open Course Ware, says Saif, because they are large files likely to be found on local computers.
After the university trial, Saif intends to try a city-scale test and hopes to interest other countries with poor internet infrastructure. He is also in talks with PTCL, the largest ISP in Pakistan, about using his idea.
