Web latency reduction via client-side prefetching

The rapid growth of the WWW has inspired numerous techniques to reduce Web latency. While some of these techniques have not been implemented because they either increase network traffic or require cooperation between tiers, recent studies cast a shadow on techniques already in use (e.g. proxy caching) as a result of the increasingly dynamic aspects of the WWW. In particular, the proliferation of dynamically generated Web pages (i.e. cgi, ASP), which are either linked to a database, or extract information from cookies, reduces the effectiveness of caching techniques. Most techniques attempt to improve on part of the overall latency, and often neglect to address the internal latency, which can be a serious bottleneck in heterogeneous environments. We propose a client-side prefetching mechanism, where the decision of what to prefetch is left to the user. We found it has the potential of reducing latency by up to 81% in a homogeneous environment and 63% in a heterogeneous environment. In data taken on the client, the technique depicted the potential to decrease latency by three-fold. Client-side prefetching does not increase network traffic, it attempts to improve on all parts of latency, and it can be implemented on the client side, without the cooperation of any other tier. Moreover, it can work seamlessly with any other latency reduction technique. We advocate the inclusion of a suitable mechanism in future Web browsers to support client-side prefetching.