GAIUS Networks is a New York University spinout startup with an ambitious vision of solving the last mile content provisioning challenge for the next three billion users in emerging markets.Problem
Many challenges hinder web access in developing regions, including poor connectivity, high server latencies, and the growing complexity of web pages. A typical web page downloaded by a browser may involve: (a) downloading 100+ objects [1]; (b) spawning 30+ network connections; (c) issuing 20+ DNS requests with high response times; and (d) processing several layers of recursive requests triggered by JavaScript and HTTP redirections.
- Locality and Edge servers: GAIUS makes an explicit distinctionbetween local and global content providers. Every mobileuser and content provider is associated with a localitythat determines the visibility of their content among users.A locality can be defined at various granularities, e.g. servinga large city or a small town. Every locality is associatedwith an edge server that handles all the requests from userswithin the locality.
- Channels: Rather than websites, the simplified abstraction forcontent in GAIUS is a channel. Analogous to Twitter feedsor television channels, GAIUS allows mobile users to act ascontent providers to create channels and publish content ontheir channels. The content provider dictates the visibilityof a channel within and across localities. Users access contentby searching and subscribing to channels. GAIUS alsoenables conventional web content providers (such as newssites) to auto-convert their website into channels.
- Mobile App Markup Language (MAML): GAIUS channels arerepresented in a highly concise Mobile Application MarkupLanguage (MAML) format instead ofHTML, CSS and JavaScript.The MAML format is streamlined to reduce the complexityof web pages. The GAIUS app on an end user’s device actsas a MAML browser and receives, interprets, and rendersthe MAML pages.
- Content meets Ads at the Edge: GAIUS explicitly decouples content and advertisements. Every locality is associated with a set of local advertisement providers who power the GAIUS ecosystem. Channels are associated with explicit spaces for advertisements. When a user requests a particular page within a channel, a GAIUS policy engine takes into accountuser’s preferences, content provider’s policies, and advertiser’scontracts to choose the advertisements for a specificcontent.
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