Peer-to-Peer Computing

Chapter 1

Introduction

1.1 Overview

Modern computing technologies have decentralized data processing power

in an unprecedented manner. An important implication is that user machines,

be it a desk top computer or a handheld PDA (personal digital assistant),

have data processing power, in terms of instruction processing rate, amount

of storage, and reliability, that was inconceivable merely a decade o r two

ago. Indeed, computing now occurs largely at the “edge” of networks. Net-

work infrastructure systems have also made tr emendous strides thanks to

the ever improving communications technologies. Advancements in comput-

ing a nd communication, coupled ...