Dynamic Piece Uploading for Initial Seeding Method on BitTorrent-Like P2P Systems

P2P file sharing is known to be superior to the client-server model especially in terms of scalability. However, at the beginning of a file distribution process, a lot of requests are still concentrated on an initial file providing peer (called initial seeder). To address the issue, some initial seeding methods (also called super seeding ones) have been proposed and implemented. Since the existing initial seeding methods assume that partial files (called pieces) are distributed over a network without any partitioning or disturbing peers, the initial seeder might stop offering pieces when the network is partitioned or some uncooperative peers are included. Therefore, a dynamic piece uploading method is proposed to address the issue and evaluated with simulation experiments. The simulation results on clustered networks show that the proposal can distribute the target file without stopping, while the existing initial seeding stops offering pieces and no peer can complete the target file. The proposal is also evaluated on the networks with some interfering peers, showing that it is less effective if waiting for copy creation function is active. Since Bit Torrent-like P2P systems create autonomous self-organizing networks, the proposal is regarded as an improvement of effective file distribution on such networks.