Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The performance and locality tradeoff in bittorrent-like file sharing systems

  • Published:
Peer-to-Peer Networking and Applications Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In recent years, the surge of large-scale peer-to-peer (P2P) applications has brought huge amounts of P2P traffic, which has significantly changed the Internet traffic pattern and increased the traffic-relay cost at the Internet Service Providers (ISPs). To alleviate the stress on networks, methods of localized peer selection have been proposed that advocate neighbor selection within the same network (AS or ISP) to reduce the cross-ISP traffic. Nevertheless, localized peer selection may potentially lead to the downgrade of download speed at the peers, rendering a non-negligible tradeoff between the download performance and traffic localization in the P2P system. Aiming at effective peer selection strategies that achieve any desired Pareto optimum in face of the tradeoff, our contributions in this paper are three-fold: (1) We characterize the performance and locality tradeoff as a multi-objective \(b\)-matching optimization problem. In particular, we first present a generic weighted \(b\)-matching model that characterizes the tit-for-tat in BitTorrent-like peer selection. We then introduce multiple optimization objectives into the model, which effectively characterize the performance and locality tradeoff using simultaneous objectives to optimize. (2) We design fully distributed peer selection algorithms that can effectively approximate any desired Pareto optimum of the global multi-objective optimization problem, which represents a desired tradeoff point between performance and locality in the entire system. (3) Taking network dynamics into consideration, we further propose practical protocols that allow each peer to dynamically adjust its peer selection preference on download performance or traffic locality, in order to adapt to the current quality of peering connections, while guaranteeing that the desired tradeoff is still achieved over its entire download process. To support our models and protocols, we have conducted rigorous analysis, extensive simulations, and prototype experiments under various practical settings extracted from real-world traces.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. BitTorrent. http://www.bittorent.org

  2. PPLive. http://www.pplive.tv

  3. Skype. http://www.skype.com

  4. Erman J, Mahanti A, Arlitt M, Williamson C (2007) Identifying and discriminating between web and peer-to-peer traffic in the network core. In: Proceedings of the sixteenth international world wide web conference (WWW’07), Banff, Alberta, Canada

  5. Eckersley P, von Lohmann F, Schoen S (2007) Packet forgery By ISPs: a report on the Comcast Affair. Electronic Frontier Foundation, Tech. Rep. Available online: http://www.eff.org/files/eff_comcast_report.pdf

  6. BitTorrent Developers Introduce Comcast Busting Encryption (2008). Available online: http://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-devs-introduce-comcast-busting-encryption-080215/

  7. Karagiannis T, Rodriguez P, Papagiannaki K (2005) Should internet service providers fear peer-assisted content distribution? In: Proceedings of the ACM/SIGCOMM internet measurement conference (IMC’05), Berkeley, CA, USA

  8. Bindal R, Cao P, Chan W, Medved J, Suwala G, Bates T, Zhang A (2006) Improving traffic locality in bitTorrent via biased neighbor selection. In: Proceedings of the 26th international conference on distributed computing systems (ICDCS’06), Lisboa, Portugal

  9. Gkantsidis C, Karagiannis T, Rodriguez P, Vojnovic M (2006) Planet scale software updates. In: Proceedings of ACM SIGCOMM, Pisa, Italy

  10. Saleh O, Hefeeda M (2006) Modeling and caching of peer-to-peer traffic. In: Proceedings of 14th international conference on network protocols (ICNP’06), Santa Barbara, CA, USA

  11. Shen G, Wang Y, Xiong Y, Zhao B, Zhang Z (2007) HPTP: relieving the tension between ISPs and P2P. In: Proceedings of the 6th international workshop on peer-to-peer systems (IPTPS’07), Bellevue, WA, USA

  12. Xie H, Yang YR, Krishnamurthy A, Liu Y, Silberschatz A (2008) P4P: provider portal for applications. In: Proceedings of ACM SIGCOMM, Seattle, WA, USA

  13. Aggarwal V, Feldmann A, Scheideler C (2007) Can ISPs and P2P users cooperate for improved performance? In: Proceedings of ACM SIGCOMM, Kyoto, Japan

  14. Liu B, Cui Y, Lu Y, Xue Y (2009) Locality-awareness in bittorrent-like p2p applications. IEEE Trans Multimed 11(3):361–371

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Le Blond S, Legout A, Dabbous W (2011) Pushing bittorrent locality to the limit. Comput Netw 55(3):541–557

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Choffnes DR, Bustamante FE (2008) Taming the torrent: a practical approach to reducing cross-ISP traffic in peer-to-peer systems. In: Proceedings of ACM SIGCOMM, Seattle, WA, USA

  17. Ren S, Tan E, Luo T, Chen S, Guo L, Zhang X (2010) TopBT: a topology-aware and infrastructure-independent bittorrent client. In: Proc. of INFOCOM’10, San Diego, CA, USA

  18. Cuevas R, Laoutaris N, Yang X, Siganos G, Rodriguez P (2011) Deep diving into bittorrent locality. In: Proc. of INFOCOM’11

  19. Huang C, Li J, Ross KW (2007) Can internet video-on-demand be profitable? In: Proceedings of ACM SIGCOMM, Kyoto, Japan

  20. Wang J, Chiu DM, Lui J (2006) Modeling the peering and routing tussle between ISPs and P2P applications. In: Proceedings of the 14th international workshop on quality of service (IWQoS’06), New Haven, CT, USA

  21. Mathieu F (2008) Self-stabilization in preference-based systems. Springer J P2P Netw Appl 1:104–121

    Google Scholar 

  22. Mathieu F, Postelnicu G, Reynier J (2009) The stable configuration in acyclic preference-based systems. In: Proceedings of the 28th IEEE conference on computer communications (INFOCOM’09), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

  23. Cechlárová K, Fleiner T (2005) On a generalization of the stable roommates problem. ACM Trans Algor 1(1):143–156

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Huang W, Wu C, Lau FC (2010) In: Proceedings of IEEE international conference on communications 2010 (IEEE ICC 2010). In: The performance and locality tradeoff in bittorrent-like P2P file-sharing systems

  25. Vuze. http://www.vuze.com/

  26. Collette Y, Siarry P (2004) Multiobjective optimization: principles and case studies. Springer-Verlag Berlin, Heidelberg, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  27. Cohen B (2003) Incentives build robustness in bitTorrent. In: The first workshop on economics of peer-to-peer systems, Berkeley, CA, USA

  28. Hemminger S (2005) Network emulation with NetEm. In: Proceedings of linux conference Australia (linux.conf.au’05), Canberra, Australia

  29. Rao A, Legout A, Dabbous W (2010) Can realistic bittorrent experiments be performed on clusters? In: Proceedings of the 10th IEEE international conference on peer-to-peer computing (P2P’10), Delft, Netherlands

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Prof. Yang Richard Yang in Yale university for his valuable suggestions in developing the work and his generous offering of field test traces from his P4P project.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Wei Huang

  2. University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Chuan Wu & Francis C.M. Lau

  3. University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, T2N 1N4, Canada

    Zongpeng Li

Authors
  1. Wei Huang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Chuan Wu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Zongpeng Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Francis C.M. Lau
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wei Huang.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Huang, W., Wu, C., Li, Z. et al. The performance and locality tradeoff in bittorrent-like file sharing systems. Peer-to-Peer Netw. Appl. 7, 469–484 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12083-012-0190-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12083-012-0190-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation