In this paper we present an analysis of HTTP traffic captured from Internet cafés and kiosks from two different developing countries -- Cambodia and Ghana. This paper has two main contributions. The first contribution is a analysis of the characteristics of the web trace, including the distribution and classification of the web objects requested by the users. We outline notable features of the data set which effect the performance of the web for users in developing regions. Using the trace data, we also perform several simulation analyses of cache performance, including both traditional caching and more novel off-line caching proposals. The second contribution is a set of suggestions on mechanisms to improve the user experience of the web in these regions. These mechanisms include both applications of well-known research techniques as well as offering some less well-studied suggestions based on intermittent connectivity.

We consider the problem of routing in a delay tolerant network (DTN) in the presence of path failures. Previous work on DTN routing has focused on using precisely known network dynamics, which does not account for message losses due to link failures, buffer overruns, path selection errors, unscheduled delays, or other problems. We show how to split, replicate, and erasure code message fragments over multiple delivery paths to optimize the probability of successful message delivery. We provide a formulation of this problem and solve it for two cases: a 0/1 (Bernoulli) path delivery model where messages are either fully lost or delivered, and a Gaussian path delivery model where only a fraction of a message may be delivered. Ideas from the modern portfolio theory literature are borrowed to solve the underlying optimization problem. Our approach is directly relevant to solving similar problems that arise in replica placement in distributed file systems and virtual node placement in DHTs. In three different simulated DTN scenarios covering a wide range of applications, we show the effectiveness of our approach in handling failures.