Overview

The Ouinet network is a collection of software tools and support infrastructure that provide access to web resources when access to the unrestricted internet is unreliable or unavailable, tailored for scenarios of limited internet connectivity and selective network traffic filtering. Ouinet provides a variety of different mechanisms through which web content can be accessed, and aims to provide a way to access requested content, even when using a limited internet connection on which access to these resources would normally be impossible. By using different content access mechanisms as network conditions require, Ouinet can provide the best web access the situation allows, degrading gracefully when faced with increasing degrees of network disruption.

The Ouinet network contains a collection of specialized public proxy servers, known as injector servers, combined with a variety of means by which a user can construct a direct or indirect connection to those injector servers. Together these form one way in which a user can access web resources they cannot reach directly.

In addition, Ouinet uses a peer-to-peer distributed content cache system that can store and distribute cached copies of web resources. Users and contributors of Ouinet can connect to this network to share copies of web content they recently accessed with other users, especially when those other users are not able to reliably reach an injector server. The content cache can be used only for those web resources that are eligible for caching, and as such cannot fully replace access to the injector servers. Nonetheless, the distributed content cache system can lighten the load on the injector server system during network conditions in which access to the injector servers is a sparse resource, and it can serve as a limited fallback in cases where the injector servers cannot be reached at all.

The Ouinet project consists of two primary pieces of software. The client library contains all the logic necessary to fetch web resources using the multiple Ouinet techniques for doing so, as well as optionally participating in the distributed cache. It is structured as a library, and can function as a base for end-user applications that access the web. The injector daemon implements the injector server software, which is hosted by the Ouinet network operator. This document describes the workings of both of these systems, as well as the networks underlying their operation.