Peer-assisted content distribution with prices

Peer-assisted content distribution matches user demand for content with available supply at other peers in the network. Inspired by this supply-and-demand interpretation of the nature of content sharing, we employ price theory to study peer-assisted content distribution. The market-clearing prices are those which align supply and demand, and the system is studied through the characterization of price equilibria. We discuss the efficiency and robustness gains of price-based multilateral exchange, and show that simply maintaining a single price per peer (even across multiple files) suffices to achieve these benefits. Our main contribution is a system design--PACE (PriceAssisted Content Exchange)--that effectively and practically realizes multilateral exchange. Its centerpiece is a marketbased mechanism for exchanging currency for desired content, with a single, decentralized price per peer. Honest users are completely shielded from any notion of prices, budgeting, allocation, or other m...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: CONEXT
• Authors: Christina Aperjis, Michael J. Freedman, Ramesh Johari
• Keywords: Computer Networks, CONEXT 2008, Multilateral Exchange, Peer-assisted Content Distribution, Robustness Gains