Improving the browsing experience in a bandwidth limited environment through traffic management

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to share our experiences with the establishment of a cost-effective policy for the utilization of limited infrastructure resources in developing nations. In particular, this paper discusses a case study of the American University of Nigeria that provides an example of the successful management of limited Internet bandwidth among a large group of users. Data from an Internet proxy server were studied to determine how traffic was allocated to different categories of digital content. The results from this study show that only a tiny fraction of expensive bandwidth was used for resources directly related to education. To address bandwidth limitations, a restrictive policy was proposed as a solution to improve the user browsing experience while not compromising access to critical resources. Preliminary policy implementation trials restricting certain applications, such as downloading large files and prohibiting Peer-to-Peer (P2P) traffic, indicated good results. The study also shows very positive financial implications of the proposed policy. These results show that limited investments in infrastructure management can significantly reduce the running expenses of the project, which facilitates its sustainability. The results of this study are of particular interest to other institutions and companies in developing nations that are facing similar expensive bandwidth problems.

Keywords:

• infrastructure management
• content analysis
• developing countries

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the assistance given to us by the AUN through the provision of the raw data used for this study. This research was partially supported by SolBridge International School of Business.