IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Communications
On Tackling Flash Crowds with URL Shorteners and Examining User Behavior after Great East Japan Earthquake
Summary :
Several web sites providing disaster-related information failed repeatedly after the Great East Japan Earthquake, due to flash crowds caused by Twitter users. Twitter, which was intensively used for information sharing in the aftermath of the earthquake, relies on URL shorteners like bit.ly to offset its strict limit on message length. In order to mitigate the flash crowds, we examine the current Web usage and find that URL shorteners constitute a layer of indirection; a significant part of Web traffic is guided by them. This implies that flash crowds can be controlled by URL shorteners. We developed a new URL shortener, named rcdn.info, just after the earthquake; rcdn.info redirects users to a replica created on a CoralCDN, if the original site is likely to become overloaded. This surprisingly simple solution worked very well in the emergency. We also conduct a thorough analysis of the request log and present several views that capture user behavior in the emergency from various aspects. Interestingly, the traffic significantly grew up at previously unpopular (i.e., small) sites during the disaster; this traffic shift could lead to the failure of several sites. Finally, we show that rcdn.info has great potential in mitigating such failures. We believe that our experience will help the research community tackle future disasters.
- Publication
- IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Communications Vol.E95-B No.7 pp.2210-2221
- Publication Date
- 2012/07/01
- Publicized
- Online ISSN
- 1745-1345
- DOI
- 10.1587/transcom.E95.B.2210
- Type of Manuscript
- Special Section PAPER (Special Section on Future Internet Technologies against Present Crises)
- Category
Authors
Keyword
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Takeru INOUE, Shin-ichi MINATO, "On Tackling Flash Crowds with URL Shorteners and Examining User Behavior after Great East Japan Earthquake" in IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Communications,
vol. E95-B, no. 7, pp. 2210-2221, July 2012, doi: 10.1587/transcom.E95.B.2210.
Abstract: Several web sites providing disaster-related information failed repeatedly after the Great East Japan Earthquake, due to flash crowds caused by Twitter users. Twitter, which was intensively used for information sharing in the aftermath of the earthquake, relies on URL shorteners like bit.ly to offset its strict limit on message length. In order to mitigate the flash crowds, we examine the current Web usage and find that URL shorteners constitute a layer of indirection; a significant part of Web traffic is guided by them. This implies that flash crowds can be controlled by URL shorteners. We developed a new URL shortener, named rcdn.info, just after the earthquake; rcdn.info redirects users to a replica created on a CoralCDN, if the original site is likely to become overloaded. This surprisingly simple solution worked very well in the emergency. We also conduct a thorough analysis of the request log and present several views that capture user behavior in the emergency from various aspects. Interestingly, the traffic significantly grew up at previously unpopular (i.e., small) sites during the disaster; this traffic shift could lead to the failure of several sites. Finally, we show that rcdn.info has great potential in mitigating such failures. We believe that our experience will help the research community tackle future disasters.
URL: https://global.ieice.org/en_transactions/communications/10.1587/transcom.E95.B.2210/_p
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@ARTICLE{e95-b_7_2210,
author={Takeru INOUE, Shin-ichi MINATO, },
journal={IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Communications},
title={On Tackling Flash Crowds with URL Shorteners and Examining User Behavior after Great East Japan Earthquake},
year={2012},
volume={E95-B},
number={7},
pages={2210-2221},
abstract={Several web sites providing disaster-related information failed repeatedly after the Great East Japan Earthquake, due to flash crowds caused by Twitter users. Twitter, which was intensively used for information sharing in the aftermath of the earthquake, relies on URL shorteners like bit.ly to offset its strict limit on message length. In order to mitigate the flash crowds, we examine the current Web usage and find that URL shorteners constitute a layer of indirection; a significant part of Web traffic is guided by them. This implies that flash crowds can be controlled by URL shorteners. We developed a new URL shortener, named rcdn.info, just after the earthquake; rcdn.info redirects users to a replica created on a CoralCDN, if the original site is likely to become overloaded. This surprisingly simple solution worked very well in the emergency. We also conduct a thorough analysis of the request log and present several views that capture user behavior in the emergency from various aspects. Interestingly, the traffic significantly grew up at previously unpopular (i.e., small) sites during the disaster; this traffic shift could lead to the failure of several sites. Finally, we show that rcdn.info has great potential in mitigating such failures. We believe that our experience will help the research community tackle future disasters.},
keywords={},
doi={10.1587/transcom.E95.B.2210},
ISSN={1745-1345},
month={July},}
Copy
TY - JOUR
TI - On Tackling Flash Crowds with URL Shorteners and Examining User Behavior after Great East Japan Earthquake
T2 - IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Communications
SP - 2210
EP - 2221
AU - Takeru INOUE
AU - Shin-ichi MINATO
PY - 2012
DO - 10.1587/transcom.E95.B.2210
JO - IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Communications
SN - 1745-1345
VL - E95-B
IS - 7
JA - IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Communications
Y1 - July 2012
AB - Several web sites providing disaster-related information failed repeatedly after the Great East Japan Earthquake, due to flash crowds caused by Twitter users. Twitter, which was intensively used for information sharing in the aftermath of the earthquake, relies on URL shorteners like bit.ly to offset its strict limit on message length. In order to mitigate the flash crowds, we examine the current Web usage and find that URL shorteners constitute a layer of indirection; a significant part of Web traffic is guided by them. This implies that flash crowds can be controlled by URL shorteners. We developed a new URL shortener, named rcdn.info, just after the earthquake; rcdn.info redirects users to a replica created on a CoralCDN, if the original site is likely to become overloaded. This surprisingly simple solution worked very well in the emergency. We also conduct a thorough analysis of the request log and present several views that capture user behavior in the emergency from various aspects. Interestingly, the traffic significantly grew up at previously unpopular (i.e., small) sites during the disaster; this traffic shift could lead to the failure of several sites. Finally, we show that rcdn.info has great potential in mitigating such failures. We believe that our experience will help the research community tackle future disasters.
ER -
English
