Understanding BitTorrent: An Experimental Perspective

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Date: November 10, 2005 9:58:29 PM EST
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Understanding BitTorrent: An Experimental  
Perspective
Reply-To: dewayne () warpspeed com


	BitTorrent is a recent, yet successful peer-to-peer protocol focused  
on efficient content delivery. To gain a better understanding of the  
key algorithms of the protocol, we have instrumented a client and run  
experiments on a large number of real torrents. Our experimental  
evaluation is peer oriented, instead of tracker oriented, which  
allows us to get detailed information on all exchanged messages and  
protocol events. In particular, we have explored the properties of  
the two key algorithms of BitTorrent: the choke and the rarest first  
algorithms. We have shown that they both perform remarkably well, but  
that the old version of the choke algorithm, that is still widely  
deployed, suffers from several problems. We have also explored the  
dynamics of a peer set that captures most of the torrent variability  
and provides important insights for the design of realistic models of  
BitTorrent. Finally, we have evaluated the protocol overhead. We have  
found in our experiments a small protocol overhead and explain under  
which conditions it can increase.

        Paper is available at: <http://hal.inria.fr/inria-00000156/en>

Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com>


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