BitTorrent and fountain codes: friends or foes?

Abstract--BitTorrent is the most popular file sharing protocol on the Internet. It is proved that its performance are nearoptimal for generic file distribution when the overlay is in a steady state. The two main BitTorrent strategies, tit-for-tat and local rarest fist, work at best: the former assures reciprocity in downloading and uploading rates between peers and the latter distributes the different file pieces equally among the overlay. Both assure good performance in terms of resource utilization and the practical consequence is that the peers achieve good downloading times. The best network condition for the protocol is a network characterized by roughly fixed arrival rates and no flash crowds. Nevertheless, many research works argue that the performance of the protocol quickly degrades when the peers join and leave at high rates, the network is affected by flash crowds phenomenon and the number of peer that shares the complete file is only a little fraction of the total populatio...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: IPPS
• Authors: Salvatore Spoto, Rossano Gaeta, Marco Grangetto, Matteo Sereno
• Keywords: Distributed And Parallel Computing, Generic File Distribution, IPPS 2010, Local Rarest Fist, Main Bittorrent Strategies