A Novel Peer Grouping Scheme for P2P File Distribution Networks

Peer-to-peer networks leverage the upload bandwidth of leechers, which results in a significant improvement of scalability over that of client-server networks. Numerous P2P applications serve as overlay networks for file distribution. In evaluating the performance of such systems, file distribution time is an important metric. Based on fluid models, scheduling algorithms that allow files to be downloaded in a minimum time have been developed. To further improve the system performance, our objective is to reduce the leechers´ average download time while maintaining the minimum download time. A grouping scheme is presented based on the bandwidth characteristics of the network. According to this optimization objective, we identify cases where it is beneficial to apply the grouping strategy. Simulation results show that applying grouping schemes in suitable cases brings in significant performance improvement over a wide range of networks of varying bandwidth characteristics.