August 20, 2008
Share Locally, Unclog the Internet
Whenever you have to share digital files, think of the Internet: do it locally. Researchers at the University of Washington and Yale University have found that sharing files through peer-to-peer networking with neighbor computers instead of with far-away machines relieves pressure on the Internet-service provider by as much as five times and speeds up the transfer by 20 percent.
Besides being widely used for murky purposes, P2P is used by several media outlets to deliver legal video content and movies. Around 50 percent to 80 percent of all Internet traffic is generated by bandwidth-greedy P2P exchanges, and it is expected to grow, putting strain on Internet-service providers.
To solve this problem, the researchers propose a system they have dubbed P4P, which consists of sharing files preferentially with nearby computers. The researchers calculated that the average P2P data packet travels 1,000 miles and takes 5.5 connections through major hubs. The new system allows data to travel 160 miles on average and make only 0.89 connections, which reduces Web traffic on connections between cities, where there are more frequent bottlenecks.
A working group consisting of 80 members, including representatives from Internet-service providers and content-supplying companies has been exploring P4P since last year. The research team is presenting a paper on their system this week at the Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Data Communications meeting in Seattle. —Maria José Viñas
Posted on Wednesday August 20, 2008 | Permalink |Comments
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Do I understand this article correctly? For the convenience of the medium, I should exercise discretion about to whom I send files? Apparently I just don’t get it. By the same logic, I should limit my Christmas card list to the family members, friends, and neighbors who live nearby, rather than strain the Postal Service’s resources by asking that my same-price postage carry the cards all the way to the other end of the country. Even if gas were free, I should vacation close to home, lest I overstrain the Interstate Highway system.
Give me a break. What universe are these folks living in?
— Dan Aug 21, 09:03 AM #
Dan misses the point. Mailing a letter is paying for a service and you’re entitled to use all aspects of that service. Use of bandwidth is a legitimate concern, and finding ways to speed appropriate information exchange without loading the Internet is a desirable goal.
— Al Aug 21, 10:53 AM #
Dan – if I understand this right, I could be trying to use a P2P to download a large document from you, with you in CA, and me in VA. It would take an age. If someone in say, UT tried, they’d have it much faster than I. Say then, that this same file has already traveled across the country, and there are others in MD, WV, or even NC who have that file. It would be faster for the P2P network to search locally and connect locally than for it to automatically connect to someone else far away.
If I am understanding this P4P correctly, it would do just that – pick a smaller radius and check there, and only search beyond that radius if none locally have that file, only putting a strain on the hubs it has to, rather than finding the file 1,000 miles away and automatically downloading from that one without bothering to search local networks and giving the local ones preferential treatment.
If I do understand that to be correct, I think it’s brilliant.
— KM Aug 21, 11:39 AM #
KM,
Thanks for the explanation. I misunderstood who was to be doing the routing.
— Dan Aug 21, 12:05 PM #