Better Guide than Throttle!

The massive increase in peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing has determined many ISPs to restrict, or "throttle", connection speeds in order to, as they say, maintain an optimal level of bandwidth for all users. An alternative could, however, come from the University of Washington in Seattle, as we reported a while ago.

For those of you unfamiliar with the internet terminology - resources that are likely to be limited and hence build rate-limiting features of a given calculation are commonly called "bottlenecks'". They crop up most when users download files through P2P networks, files which are stored a long way from their locations; internet links over thousands of kilometres get tied up delivering it. This is where this new method, titled Proactive Provider Participation for P2P (or P4P) comes into play promising to ease the load. This means ISPs will provide P2P sites with both info on the shortest routes between peers, and network traffic reports that recognize uncongested routes.

Tests give enough reasons for further enthusiasm – According to results revealed at a Seattle conference on the internet last week, P4P reduces the average journey of a P2P data packet from 1600 kilometres to just 250 km which translates in a general decrease of the load by about 80 per cent.