Peer-to-Peer Computing

Chapter 3

P2P Network Architectures

3.1 Introduction

It is not a severe exaggeration to say that a P2P application is all about

communications at the application level, which brings about the high degr e e

of decentralization and autonomy. Indeed, by its nature, a P2P application

is about voluntary high- le vel sharing of resources, in terms of data possessed,

storage space, and bandwidth. Yet, on the flip side, such sharing can be re-

alized only by efficiently communicating among the peers, with a lack of in-

frastructure s upport. Communications, in turn, can be effective only if we

can somehow realize a well-designed network architecture at the application ...