INSTANCE: The Intermediate Storage Node Concept

The objective of the INSTANCE (Intermediate Storage Node Concept) project is to support asynchronous communication in server-based systems, like World-Wide Web and Video-on-Demand, more efficiently by a new structure for server-based systems. The proposed approach will lead to a structure that is capable to support concurrently a higher number of clients with lower costs (compared to traditional approaches). Servers, which are called intermediate storage nodes in INSTANCE, are seen as a vehicle to transfer information in asynchronous mode from provider to consumer. The protocol stack is drastically reduced at the server in analogy to intermediate network nodes. The Integrated Layer Processing principle is applied to the handling of data management system, application, and the remaining communication protocol.