Technical Summary
Peer-to-peer applications, such as file sharing, real-time
communication, and live and on-demand media streaming use a
significant amount of Internet resources. Such applications often
transfer large amounts of data in peer-to-peer connections. However,
they usually have little knowledge of the underlying network topology.
As a result, they may choose their peers randomly with respect to the
underlying network topology or they may choose their peers based on
measurements and statistics that, in many situations, may lead to
suboptimal choices. This document describes problems related to
improving traffic generated by peer-to-peer applications. In
particular, this document discusses issues which better-than- random
peer selection based on network-layer information may raise.
Working Group Summary
This document is the problem statement that accompained the chartering
process of the ALTO WG.
Document Quality
The document has received extended review by WG members and TSV
experts.
Personnel
Lisa Dusseault is the responsible Area Director. Jon Peterson
is the shepherd.