Peer to peer Systems

Question 1

What is Napster?

Answer 1

-First working, large-scale application of p2p paradigm.
-Shut down.

Question 2

What is BitTorrent?

Answer 2

-Well-known p2p system for file sharing.
-Enable sharing large files.
-Initial release in 2021.
-File is split into chunks, chunks are replicated over peers.
-A client peer can download different chunks from different server peers in parallel.

Question 3

Describe the “tit for tat” mechanism.

Answer 3

-Preference to client peers that are acting as server peers.
-Peers that are not uploading enough are chocked.
-Chocking/ unchoking decisions based on the uploading rate of peer.

Question 4

Peer to Peer VS Client Server

Answer 4

Client server, where devices are reliant on services provided and managed by a central server; and peer-to-peer where there is no server and each device provides services and files to other devices on the network. You can think of this as ‘dedicated servers’ vs ‘local hosts’.