Research on Location-unaware Problem in BitTorrent-like Networks

BitTorrent-like (BT-like) peer-to-peer (P2P) networks with multi-source file transmission protocol has emerged as the most popular applications in Internet. However, the mechanism of peers choosing peers to download without any knowledge about underlying physical network location can cause a serious location-unaware problem. The location-unaware problem means there is a big volume of unnecessary traffic across the border of networks. It brings great stress in the network operators. We first propose and define the location-unaware problem in BT-like P2P networks. Then, we propose a deterministic mathematical model to analyze the efficiency and performance of BT-like networks with ideal location awareness. In the location-aware network, peers try to transmit data between others in the same range of networks, such as a local network. The analysis and discussions of the model shows that a location-aware BT network can decrease the traffic across the border of networks. When the speed of peers uploading to other peers in the same network is equal with the downloading speed of peer, the traffic across the border is the least. The location-aware network also has a good scalability and fairness