Collaborative Data Distribution with BitTorrent for Computational Desktop Grids

— Data-centric applications are still a challenging issue for Large Scale Distributed Computing Systems. The emergence of new protocols and softwares for collaborative content distribution over Internet offers a new opportunity for efficient and fast delivery of high volume of data. This paper presents an evaluation of the BitTorrent protocol for Computational Desktop Grids. We first present a prototype of a generic subsystem dedicated to data management and designed to serve as a building block for any Desktop Grid System. Based on this prototype we conduct experimentations to evaluate the potential of BitTorrent compared to a classical approach based on FTP data server. The preliminary results obtained with a 65-nodes cluster measure the basic characteristics of BitTorrent in terms of latency and bandwidth and evaluate the scalability of BitTorrent for the delivery of large input files. Moreover, we show that BitTorrent has a considerable latency overhead compared to FTP but cle...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: ISPDC
• Authors: Baohua Wei, Gilles Fedak, Franck Cappello
• Keywords: BitTorrent Protocol, Desktop Grid, Desktop Grid System, ISPDC 2005