Will Net Lightning Strike?
Netli, Inc. (short for NetLightning) speeds up long distance user to web services transactions using a proprietary “application aware” protocol between two Netli nodes. Netli calls this an “Application Delivery Network,” in contrast to (those tired old…) “Content Delivery Networks” such as Akamai.
The Netli Protocol keeps a pool of long-lived TCP-like connections open between a pair of Netli nodes. These connections are reused for HTTP, HTTPS and TCP transactions, which reduces delay. TCP traditionalists are offended by this tinkering with the very soul of the Internet. A case can be made that proprietary protocols like this might distort performance for non-Netli Internet traffic. Or maybe not.
[tease]
“Because end users and Web servers use the traditional HTTP(S)/TCP protocols to communicate with the Netli platform, there is no need to make modifications to customer Web servers, Web applications, or end-user clients to benefit from the optimizations that NP provides.
[tease]
“NP ultimately reduces the number of round trips to complete a transaction or page download through long-lived connections and better handling of packet loss and packet reordering. Caching of small, static objects and implementing intelligent request prediction also help to reduce the necessary number of round trips. While a typical Web page requires 30 to 50 round trips to download; NP reduces this to an effective number of two to three round trips. The improvement is significant for almost all users, but is particularly important over long distances, where the average round trip time (the time it takes for one Internet Protocol packet to travel from one location to another and for a response packet to travel back) is large (such as 100-300 ms or more). Over long distances, the time savings become quite significant.”
[via David Cowan]