Sideband computing is where a user connects to some normal network service, and a separate communication channel is opened through which a server distributes tasks to the clients. Through sideband computing method, any network server which has a lot of clients can form into a large-scale super-computing network. During this process, the resources in the clients could be utilized through the central server so long as the main channel is maintained. Sideband computing is related to the

distributed computing A distributed system is a system whose components are located on different computer network, networked computers, which communicate and coordinate their actions by message passing, passing messages to one another from any system. Distributed com ...

and multiple communication channels. The task can be any task that is performed by individual client and used in the various distributed computing environment such as

social computing Social computing is an area of computer science that is concerned with the intersection of social behavior and computational systems. It is based on creating or recreating social conventions and social contexts through the use of software and tech ...

volunteer computing Volunteer computing is a type of distributed computing in which people donate their computers' unused resources to a research-oriented project, and sometimes in exchange for credit points. The fundamental idea behind it is that a modern desktop co ...

, and edge computing,

grid computing Grid computing is the use of widely distributed computer resources to reach a common goal. A computing grid can be thought of as a distributed system with non-interactive workloads that involve many files. Grid computing is distinguished from co ...

, or utility computing. Collaborative task in social computing is one example. Sideband computing is also a type of super computing where each client carries out some real computation tasks that could be the individually executed. With the server aggregating the results from each client, it effectively achieves the function of a real

supercomputer A supercomputer is a computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second ( FLOPS) instead of million instructions ...

Advantage

Sideband computing maximizes the participation and involvement of clients who are connecting with the server so that every client could help to contribute. With little cost, the network server can act as a supercomputer. Most other distributed computing requires each client to manually install client side software, proactively participate in the computing and the computation is the sole objective of such client side software. With sideband computing, sideband service stays along with a regular network service, which allows the sideband services being served without much interrupting to the main network service that is less intrusive and more user-friendly to the end user. On a different view, a client can be viewed as paying its “contributing” in exchange of the regular service it is served. This is similar to

Disadvantage

Sideband computing requires a regular network service being performed beforehand. Without the main network service, it is not called sideband method.

Applicable fields

Ajax and Web 2.0 are claimed to be one of the area where sideband method is used. It is said that Ajax is conducted through asynchronously though additional channel other than a browser-server's main HTTP channel. Examples of sideband computing in this sense include collaborative filtering, online auctions, online ranking, mashing up, prediction markets,

reputation system Reputation systems are programs or algorithms that allow users to rate each other in online communities in order to build trust through reputation. Some common uses of these systems can be found on E-commerce websites such as eBay, Amazon.com, and ...

computational social choice Computational social choice is a field at the intersection of social choice theory, theoretical computer science, and the analysis of multi-agent systems. It consists of the analysis of problems arising from the aggregation of preferences of a grou ...

, tagging, and verification games using Ajax. A typical setup would involve that the server allows each client to do a small amount of work and the server coordinates and aggregates results every client to form a larger picture. For instance, when sideband computing applies to the social computing based on each client creating or recreating social conventions and social contexts through the use of client's computing resource, software and technology. Many social networking services, which utilize The Wisdom of Crowds, such as

Wiki A wiki ( ) is an online hypertext publication collaboratively edited and managed by its own audience, using a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages for the subjects or scope of the project, and could be either open to the pu ...

s, social bookmaking,

blogging A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

instant messaging Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of online chat allowing real-time text transmission over the Internet or another computer network. Messages are typically transmitted between two or more parties, when each user inputs text and trigge ...

, online bidding, and other kinds of electronic market or electronic negotiation platforms where people interact socially, could found the trace of sideband method. Another application of the sideband computing method is

P2P P2P may refer to: * Pay to play, where money is exchanged for services * Peer-to-peer, a distributed application architecture in computing or networking ** List of P2P protocols * Phenylacetone, an organic compound commonly known as P2P * Point- ...

, where a peer could not only a client or a server, it also acts as other roles including

routing Routing is the process of selecting a path for traffic in a network or between or across multiple networks. Broadly, routing is performed in many types of networks, including circuit-switched networks, such as the public switched telephone netw ...

, proxying, caching. Other claimed area of the sideband computing method are

cloud computing Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage ( cloud storage) and computing power, without direct active management by the user. Large clouds often have functions distributed over mul ...

, cluster computing and utility computing where a node could perform functions more than its primary duty through a sideband channel.

Intellectual property

A Patent 6,418,462 is granted to the sideband computing method. It is filed on January 7, 1999, and granted on July 9, 2002. Licensing and validity of the patent claims is unknown yet.

References

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Advantage

Disadvantage

Applicable fields

Intellectual property

References

See also