I like this part - sounds like httpd on the client...
http://www.openp2p.com/pub/a/p2p/2001/04/27/xdegrees.html
"Once the Client Component is installed, a server can order a program to run
on the client. Any CGI script, Java servlet, ASP component, etc. could be
run on the client. This is like breaking the Web server into two parts.
Originally, Web servers just understood HTTP and sent pages. Then the field
started demanding more from the Web and the servers got loaded down with CGI
and mod_perl and active pages and stuff. So now the Web server can choose to
go back to simple serving and (where the application is appropriate) let the
client do the other razzamatazz. This is superior to JavaScript in one
important detail: the program doesn't have to reload when a new page is
loaded, as JavaScript functions do.
And because XDegrees uses Web-compatible technology, users can access
XDegrees resources without installing any software, simply by using their
browser."
===
"Scaling is the main question that comes to mind when somebody describes a
new naming and searching system. CEO Michael Tanne claims to have figured
out mathematically that the system can scale up to millions of users and
billions of resources. Scaling is facilitated by the careful location of
servers (XDegrees will colocate servers at key routing points, as Akamai
does), and by directing clients to the nearest server as their default
"home" server. Enterprise customers can use own servers to manage in-house
applications."
"Files can be cached on multiple systems randomly scattered around the
Internet, as with Napster or Freenet. In fact, the caching in XDegrees is
more sophisticated than it is on those systems: users with high bandwidth
connections can download portions, or "stripes," of a file from several
cached locations simultaneously. The XDegrees software then reassembles
these stripes into the whole file and uses digital signatures to verify that
the downloaded file is the same as the original. A key component of this
digital signature is a digest of the file, which is stored as an HTTP header
for the file."