Data Transfer Nodes for Cloud - Storage Providers

We provide a case study of current inefficiencies in how traffic to well-known cloud-storage providers (e.g., Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive) can vary significantly in throughput (e.g., a factor of 5 or more) depending on the location of the source and sink of the data. Our case study supplements previous work on resilient overlay networks (RON) and other related ideas. These inefficiencies exist in the presence of vendor-specific points-of-presence (POP), which try to provide better network performance to the clients. In fact, the existence of special-purpose networks (e.g., national research networks, PlanetLab) and complicated peering relationships between networks, means that performance problems might exist in many wide-area networks (WANs). Our main contribution is to continue the cataloging of network inefficiencies so that practitioners and experimenters are aware of them. But, we also show how simple routing detours, can improve throughput by factors of over 3x for client-to-cloud-storage. Routing detours are implemented by adding intermediate nodes in the routing path. These special-purpose intermediate nodes are called data transfer nodes (DTNs). We have also implemented an optimization in these DTNs in the form of cut-through routing. Although the specific inefficiencies in this paper might be transitory (and we agree with that characterization), WAN bottlenecks due to routing, suboptimal middlebox configuration, and congestion persist as real problems to be cataloged, discussed, and addressed through the use of detours, or data transfer nodes (DTNs), or RONs. Additionally, we provide a brief overview of the beneficial routing detours in 20 PlanetLab nodes in North America.