Practicable network design for handling growth in the volume of peer-to-peer traffic

Peer-to-peer (P2P) technology is attracting attention as a foundation for major next-generation Internet applications, and is already in widespread noncommercial service. However, networks are currently designed and managed on the assumption of client-server Web traffic. So, future growth in peer-to-peer traffic will introduce novel considerations to the design and management of networks. In this paper, we define models for peer-to-peer and client-server traffic, and evaluate several network topologies from the viewpoint of traffic volume and the variation of traffic on each link. We clarify the characteristics of network topologies that make them suitable for handling growth in the proportion of peer-to-peer traffic.