Web Acceleration in Asymmetrical Mobile Network

Abstract

End to end performance of web application degrades seriously in mobile networks because the inefficiencies of HTTP and TCP in lossy and asymmetrical environment. In this article, we discussed common architecture of web accelerator which embraces both HTTP and TCP optimization. Based on the feasibility analyses of various acceleration technologies in asymmetrical mobile network, the components of accelerator and their functions are provided. In order to explain how to choose function entities of accelerator and how to optimize their parameters in asymmetrical environment, we carried out three simulation based analyses. Firstly we characterize the correlations between user perceived web response time and asymmetrical link characteristics. Consequently, we show how HTTP compression strongly affects the web response time when uplink resources are limited. At the same time, our study demonstrated that caching scheme performs poorly when uplink quality degraded. In addition, possible potential methods for web response time and their design criteria are discussed.