|
|
P4P: The future of downloading?
Author: Gareth HalfacreePublished: 17th March 2008
If high-definition downloads are ever to become commonplace, ISPs need technology like P4P.
Verizon has become a founder member of the Distributed Computing Industry Association's P4P Workgroup, which is looking into creating a standard protocol for carrier-grade peer-to-peer file transfer systems. The news is good for both the carrier and the end-user, too: tests indicate that both the performance of the file download and the congestion on the network were both improved.
P4P isn't, as the name might imply, two better than P2P but instead stands for Pro-active network Provider Participation for P2P. Yes, it's a bit laboured but points for trying, guys.
The idea is to create a system whereby Internet Service Providers are able to communicate information regarding network conductions to the client P2P application in order to improve performance and lower network congestion. By giving the client software information about P2P users that are close in terms of network routing, the software is able to choose seeds in a way which maximises routing efficiency.
This system relies on gathering as much data about the network conditions around all users of a particular torrent, so the group is keen to see its technology adopted as an official standard. Much like BitTorrent, the idea is that the more ISPs use the system the more efficient it'll be.
As usual the group has given no indication on when we're likely to see the technology implemented, but with ever-increasing resistance to throttling as a way to reduce data tranist costs it's clear that ISPs desperately need something to keep them afloat.
Do you see this as a way of increasing the performance of your P2P downloads, or just the ISPs looking to increase their bottom line? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
Related articles on bit-tech.net
Comments (14)
Stats: 0.094 seconds
To me it's just a great example of synergy. As long as they don't use it to pull surveillance into the deal but strictly try to optimize bittorrent efficiency then it's all good news.
This would be great news is the ISPs wern't all money grubbing whores who were owned by content producers and therefore have an interest in controlling what content you can access.
It wouldn't be a problem if ISPs were just ISPs. unfortunatly all the broadband ISPs also want to be TV and phone providers and so they have a vested interest in not allowing you to download competing content that might keep you from buying their other services. That, plus the fact that they have shown a distinct willingness to roll over for the government on providing customer information, means that i want them as involved as LITTLE as possible in my web expierience.
The problem that P4P addresses is the inefficiency of random peer assignments as used by most p2p systems. For example, imagine that you're downloading a file from a swarm with 10,000 peers, one of whom is right next to you. Using standard BitTorrent you would be 99.5% likely not to find out about the best peer on the first announce, and only 50% likely to find out about the best peer in 200 minutes, and have no guarantee of ever finding out about the best peer. With P4P, the network knows that you two are next to each other, so you're connected immediately. The result is that with P4P you download most data from peers that you're well connected with, resulting in 200% speedups (on average) for FTTH users compared to standard P2P. It also results in a 50% reduction in inter-ISP data transfers, which ISP's like. So we have a happy situation where this improvement in efficiency improves performance for users, and reduces costs to ISP's.
- Laird Popkin, CTO, Pando Networks and Co-Chair of P4P Working Group