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BitTorrent is the most popular peer-to-peer (P2P) content delivery application where individual users share various types of content with tens of thousands of other users. The growing popularity of BitTorrent is primarily due to the availability of valuable content without any cost for the consumers. However, apart from the required resources, publishing valuable (and often copyrighted) content has serious legal implications for the users who publish the material. This raises the question that whether (at least major) content publishers behave in an altruistic fashion or have other motives such as financial incentives. In this paper, we identify the content publishers of more than 55 K torrents in two major BitTorrent portals and examine their characteristics. We discover that around 100 publishers are responsible for publishing 67% of the content, which corresponds to 75% of the downloads. Our investigation reveals several key insights about major publishers. First, antipiracy agencies and malicious users publish “fake” files to protect copyrighted content and spread malware, respectively. Second, excluding the fake publishers, content publishing in major BitTorrent portals appears to be largely driven by companies that try to attract consumers to their own Web sites for financial gain. Finally, we demonstrate that profit-driven publishers attract more loyal consumers than altruistic top publishers, whereas the latter have a larger fraction of loyal consumers with a higher degree of loyalty than the former. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Video on demand services have been increasingly proliferated in the Internet. One popular way to disseminate video files among numerous users is to leverage peer-to-peer (P2P) systems (e.g., BitTorrent). However, BitTorrent is not designed with video streaming requirements and hence suffers from long setup delay. In this paper, the drawbacks of existing P2P-based streaming solutions are analyzed in terms of sequential delivery. Then we propose Waterfall that splits the whole swarm into multiple swarms, which are then cascaded by the scene sequence. In this way, peers in a swarm download the chunks of the same video scene from the peers in the same swarm as well as the ones in the preceding swarm that already moved on to the next scene. The average setup delay and maximum playback rate of Waterfall are analyzed. Experiments from a wide area network testbed reveal that Waterfall achieves two to three times higher playback rate and significantly low setup delay than the prior BitTorrent-based streaming solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks have been widely used in various Internet applications. However, P2P networks also cause serious concerns of copyrighted contents piracy: P2P helps to pirate copyrighted contents, which impedes wide application of P2P networks. In this paper, we investigate several important issues on the ways to prevent pirated content propagation in P2P networks. We propose a system to stop pirated content propagation by utilizing several attacks to BitTorrent (BT). First, we design a system that can handle a large number of concurrent connections to reduce bandwidth consumption. Second, we build two mathematical models for BT attacks, including leechers behavior model and fake-block behavior model, and we analyze the performance of the system using these models. Third, we optimize BT clients by taking into account different implementations and counter-measure designs. We conducted several experiments in real networks, the results of which verified that our system is suitable for most current BT clients, and BT clients' download duration is extended at least three times longer, which is much better than the results reported in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BitTorrent is one of the most important applications in the current Internet. Despite of its interest, we still have little knowledge regarding the connectivity properties of real BitTorrent swarms. In this paper we leverage a dataset including the connectivity information of 250 real torrents and more than 150k peers to carefully study the connectivity properties of peers. The main topology parameters of the studied swarms suggest that they are significantly less resilient than random graphs. The analysis of the peer level connectivity properties reveals that peers continuously change more than half of their neighbours. Furthermore, we also find that a leecher typically keeps stable connections with a handful of neighbours with which it exchanges most of its traffic whereas seeders do not establish long-term connections with any peer so that they can homogeneously distribute chunks among leechers. Finally, we have discovered that a significant portion of the studied peers (45%) have an important locality-biased neighbourhood composition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Delivering content efficiently through biased neighbor selection has attracted a lot of researchers' attention in recent years. Meanwhile, how to help peers understand each other is a crucial precondition of biased neighbor selection in distributed P2P context. Recent researches have showed that reciprocation based schemes provide a feasible way of categorizing peers. These schemes can perform in direct or indirect ways. For example, tit-for-tat is a typical example of direct ways, while reputation-based schemes are the representative examples of indirect ways. Although tit-for-tat has been proved to be successful from practical deployment and academic studies, it still suffers from free-riding, malicious peers and other problems. On the other hand, reputation-based schemes pay little attention to malicious peers. However, in this paper we propose an approach to promote the whole system performance as well as cope with malicious peers. Firstly, by building a simple mathematical model for the content delivery process in BT-like system, we find that the delivery order is critical to system performance, after that we present the best selection policy from system and single peer's perspective respectively. Secondly, according to analysis results, we bring forward indirect reciprocate Reputation (iRep), detail the design issues and sketch security and overhead introduced by iRep. Finally, several simulation experiments are conducted to evaluate the performance of iRep through comparison with tit-for-tat and Eigentrust. The comparison results validate that iRep can efficiently promote system performance with limited overheads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: BT system modeling has great importance for understanding the system performance and improving the protocol design. The challenge of accurate BT system modeling lies in the complicated peer behavior in the dynamic and heterogeneous system. In this paper, we propose a bottom-up model to simplify the performance analysis and increase the modeling accuracy, in which local transitions of the system lead to global macroscopic descriptions by integration. To be specific, we evaluate the download rate of each individual peer by estimating the probability of a connection being made, and the probability of a peer being unchoked, and then later integrate the analysis of each individual peer into the description of the whole system. Such a model characterizes both core parts of the protocol and main features of the system and requires far fewer restrictive assumptions than that used before. By using the model, we provide some interesting insights into setting of parameters, power of free-riding, effect of bandwidth distribution and effectiveness of unchoking. We also validate our model through both simulations and experiments. The preliminary experimental results show that our model is significantly more accurate than existing ones. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this paper, we conduct an in-depth study on the feasibility of using network coding to ameliorate the content availability of BitTorrent swarms. We first perform mathematical analysis on the potential improvement in the content availability and bandwidth utilization induced by two existing network coding schemes. It is found that these two coding schemes either incur a very high coding complexity and disk operation overhead or cannot effectively leverage the potential of improving the content availability. In this regard, we propose a simple sparse network coding scheme in which both the drawbacks mentioned before are precluded. To accommodate the proposed coding scheme into BitTorrent, a new block scheduling algorithm is also developed based on the original rarest-first block scheduling policy of BitTorrent. Through extensive simulations and performance evaluations, we show that the proposed coding scheme is very effective in terms of improving the content availability of BitTorrent swarms when compared with some existing methods. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Internet-enabled file sharing via peer-to-peer (P2P) systems is a transglobal activity involving millions of people circulating vast amounts of information. 'Anonymous peers' exchange data via autonomous networks that are simultaneously external to, and embedded within, market structures. A transnational alliance of technology and media industries and governments employs technological barriers, legal instruments and, belatedly, commercial alternatives to constrain the phenomenon. Such 'digital enclosures' trigger productive rebellious acts by programmers, intellectual property activists and file sharers inhabiting overlapping informal networks. Escalating cycles of retaliation and resistance spawn further disorder in the informational domain. The period 2009-12 has been a watershed for technological trends, landmark legal battles and supranational treaties. However, scant attention is paid to how 'digital piracy' disturbs the logic of capital by instituting material practices that tolerate contradictory positions on free culture and electronic freedom, creating new contexts for social experimentation and recomposition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Internet, user-level performance of P2P applications may be determined by the interaction of two independent dynamics: on the one hand, by the end-to-end control policies applied at the P2P application layer (L7); on the other hand, by Traffic Engineering (TE) decisions taken at the network level (L3). Currently available tools do not allow to study L7/L3 interactions in realistic settings due to a number of limitations. Building over ModelNet, we develop a framework for the real-time emulation of TE capabilities, named ModelNet-TE, that we make available to the scientific community as open source software. ModelNet-TE allows (i) to deploy real unmodified Internet P2P applications, and to test their interaction with (ii) many TE algorithms, as its design allows to easily integrate other TE algorithms than those we already provide, (iii) in a furthermore controlled network environment. Due to these features, ModelNet-TE is a complementary tool with respect to hybrid simulation/protoyping toolkits (that constrain application development to a specific language and framework, and cannot be used with existing or proprietary applications) and to other open testbeds such as PlanetLab or Grid5000 (lacking of control or TE-capabilities respectively). ModelNet-TE can thus be useful to L7-researchers, as it allows to seamlessly and transparently test any existing P2P application without requiring any software modification. At the same time, ModelNet-TE can be useful to L3-researchers as well, since they can test their TE algorithms on the traffic generated by real applications. As a use case, in this work we carry on an experimental campaign of L7/L3 routing layers interaction through ModelNet-TE. As TE we consider the classic minimum congestion load-balancing, that we compare against standard IP routing. As example P2P applications, we take BitTorrent, one among the most popular file-sharing applications nowadays, and WineStreamer, an open source live-streaming application. We emulate BitTorrent and WineStreamer swarms over both realistic topologies (e.g., Abilene) and simplistic topologies that are commonly in use today (e.g., where the bottleneck is located at the network edge) under a variety of scenarios. Results of our experimental campaign show that user-level performance may be significantly affected by both the TE mechanism in use at L3 (e.g., due to interactions with TCP congestion control or P2P chunk trading logic), as well as scenario parameters that are difficult to control in the wild Internet, which thus testifies the interest for tools such as ModelNet-TE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Application Layer Traffic Optimization (ALTO) has recently gained attention in the research and standardisation community as a way for a network operator to guide the peer selection process of distributed applications by providing network layer topology information. In particular P2P applications are expected to gain from ALTO, due to the many connections peers form among each other, often without taking network layer topology information into account. In this paper, we present results of an extensive intra-ISP trial with an ALTO-enhanced P2P filesharing software. In summary, our results show that-depending on the concrete setting and on the distribution of upload capacity in the network-ALTO enables an ISP to save operational costs significantly while not degrading application layer performance noticeably. In addition, based on our experience we are able to give advice to operators on how to save costs with ALTO while not sacrificing application layer performance at all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer computer network protocol for sharing content in an efficient and scalable way. Modeling and analysis of the popular private BitTorrent communities has become an active area of research. In these communities users are strongly incentivized to contribute their resources, i.e., to share their files. In BitTorrent terminology, users who have finished downloading files and stay online to share these files with others in the network are called seeders. The combination of seeders and downloaders of a file is called a swarm. In this paper we examine and evaluate the efficiency of the resource allocation of seeders in multiple swarms. This is formulated as an integer linear fractional programming problem. The evaluation is done on traces representing two existing BitTorrent communities. We find that in communities, particularly with low users-to-files ratio (which is typically the case), there is room for improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peer-to-peer networks' widespread use makes multimedia files available to users worldwide. However, such networks are often used to spread illegal material while the data source and acquiring users remain anonymous. This article analyzes activity measurements in the BitTorrent network and examines child sex abuse activity through three major BitTorrent Web portals. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Peer-to-peer file sharing systems, most notably BitTorrent (BT), have achieved tremendous success among Internet users. Recent studies suggest that the long-term relationships among BT peers can be explored to enhance the downloading performance; for example, for re-sharing previously downloaded contents or for effectively collaborating among the peers. However, whether such relationships do exist in real world remains unclear. In this paper, we take a first step towards the real-world applicability of peers' long-term relationship through a measurement based study. We find that 95% peers cannot even meet each other again in the BT networks; therefore, most peers can hardly be organized for further cooperation. This result contradicts to the conventional understanding based on the observed daily arrival pattern in peer-to-peer networks. To better understand this, we revisit the arrival of BT peers as well as their long-range dependence. We find that the peers' arrival patterns are highly diverse; only a limited number of stable peers have clear self-similar and periodic daily arrivals patterns. The arrivals of most peers are, however, quite random with little evidence of long-range dependence. To better utilize these stable peers, we start to explore peers' long-term relationships in specific swarms instead of conventional BT networks. Fortunately, we find that the peers in Twitter-initialized torrents have stronger temporal locality, thus offering great opportunity for improving their degree of sharing. Our PlanetLab experiments further indicate that the incorporation of social relations remarkably accelerates the download completion time. The improvement remains noticeable even in a hybrid system with a small set of social friends only. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: FrostWire is a peer-to-peer (P2P) application derived from the open source code of Limewire. Frostwire was first released in February of 2005 as a Gnutella P2P client. As interest in the Gnutella network waned, FrostWire switched in later versions to becoming a torrent client. Since the United States government shut Limewire down, FrostWire has become more popular and is seen more often in criminal investigations. This paper describes the different components of FrostWire and the useful information which can be obtained in a digital forensic examination. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This study sought to investigate the predictors of digital piracy at the national level. The bulk of previous research on this subject has relied almost exclusively on measures of piracy taken from reports created by copyright industry representatives, which may not be objective sources. For this research, two new measures of piracy related activity in addition to the usual software piracy rate and software piracy cost measures were used. The number of BitTorrent tracking servers and the number of peerto- peer file sharing client downloads per country were measured. It was determined that these new measures tended to have predictors that were different than the standard software piracy rates. Additionally, it appeared that measuring piracy as a rate relative to legal purchases had the opposite effect than when measuring piracy in absolute terms (such as the absolute number of BitTorrent trackers and absolute dollar amount lost due to piracy). Smaller, poorer, and less technologically developed countries had higher piracy rates, but lower absolute piracy activity. An absolute measure of piracy may be more appropriate, as it likely reflects larger costs to copyright stakeholders, and therefore policy ought to focus on wealthier nations, not poorer ones, when it comes to targeting pirating behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reveals the power saving potential of P2P file sharing in two cases; popular and unpopular files. For popular files, we derive, with regard to BitTorrent, an expression for the optimal time seeders should support leechers. For unpopular files, we extend an existing model by taking into account leechers' power consumption dependent on the load. Leechers are assumed to build a temporary cluster within the P2P-overlay. We determine the required number of active leechers to cope with a given load and compare results from an analytical model to simulation. We demonstrate that it is possible to reach almost optimal energy efficiency for the download scenario by comparing the local case without cooperation with the distributed case where leechers cooperate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a BitTorrent-like protocol based on an online learning (reinforcement learning) mechanism, which can replace the peer selection mechanisms in the regular BitTorrent protocol. We model the peers' interactions in the BitTorrent-like network as a repeated stochastic game, where the strategic behaviors of the peers are explicitly considered. A peer that applies the reinforcement learning (RL)-based mechanism uses the observations on the associated peers' statistical reciprocal behaviors to determine its best responses and estimate the corresponding impact on its expected utility. The policy determines the peer's resource reciprocations such that the peer can maximize its long-term performance. We have implemented the proposed mechanism and incorporated it into an existing BitTorrent client. Our experiments performed on a controlled Planetlab testbed confirm that the proposed protocol 1) promotes fairness and provides incentives to contributed resources, i.e., high capacity peers improve their download completion time by up to 33 percent, 2) improves the system stability and robustness, i.e., reduces the peer selection fluctuations by 57 percent, and (3) discourages free-riding, i.e., peers reduce their uploads to free-riders by 64 percent as compared to the regular BitTorrent protocol. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

With the increasing client population and the explosive volume of Internet media content, the peer-to-peer networking technologies and systems provide a rapid and scalable content distribution mechanism in the global networks. The BitTorrent protocol and its derivatives are among the most popular peer-to-peer file sharing applications, which contribute a dominant fraction of today's Internet traffic. In this paper, we conduct the performance measurement and analysis of BitTorrent systems with an extensive volume of real trace logs. We use several downloading-side metrics, including overall downloading time, maximum of downloading bandwidth, average bandwidth utilization, maximum of downloading connections, and average number of active connections, to derive various interesting results from the downloading-side aspect of network resource usage. Performance examination learns many new observations and characteristics into the virtue of BitTorrent protocols and systems, thereby providing beneficial information for bandwidth allocation and connection control in BitTorrent client applications. Therefore, this study is complementary to many previous research works that mainly focused on system-oriented and uploading-side performance measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peer-to-peer file-sharing applications suffer from a fundamental problem of unfairness. Free-riders cause slower download times for others by contributing little or no upload bandwidth while consuming much download bandwidth. Previous attempts to address this fair bandwidth allocation problem suffer from slow peer discovery, inaccurate predictions of neighboring peers' bandwidth allocations, underutilization of bandwidth, and complex parameter tuning. We present FairTorrent, a new deficit-based distributed algorithm that accurately rewards peers in accordance with their contribution. A FairTorrent peer simply uploads the next data block to a peer to whom it owes the most data as measured by a deficit counter. FairTorrent is resilient to exploitation by free-riders and strategic peers, is simple to implement, requires no bandwidth overallocation, no prediction of peers' rates, no centralized control, and no parameter tuning. We implemented FairTorrent in a BitTorrent client without modifications to the BitTorrent protocol and evaluated its performance against other widely used BitTorrent clients. Our results show that FairTorrent provides up to two orders of magnitude better fairness, up to five times better download times for contributing peers, and 60%–100% better performance on average in live BitTorrent swarms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many researches on peer-to-peer video streaming have focused on dealing with highly dynamic, high-churn P2P environment. Most of P2P streaming protocols were modified from a P2P file sharing protocol. Inspired by the high performance on peer-to-peer file sharing of BitTorrent, we propose an overlaying streaming mechanism on the native BitTorrent protocol and realize a practical P2P video streaming service, called WuKong. WuKong not only takes advantages of BitTorrent but also combines the video scalability of layered video coding. In this paper, we depict an overlaid streaming mechanism in WuKong and an adaptive layer-downloading process to balance between the video quality and bandwidth utilization on heterogeneous peers. WuKong is carried out by using an open-sourced library of the BitTorrent protocol, coding schemes of the Windows Media Video (WMV), and the Scalable Video Coding (SVC). We measured and compared the service quality of end-users served by WuKong on heterogeneous peers. In addition, we evaluated the effectiveness of WuKong with peers that are randomly joining and leaving the P2P network. The results show that WuKong not only provides high quality P2P video streaming services but also supports different scaling abilities over heterogeneous devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) traffic has increased rapidly over the past few years, with file sharing providing the main drive behind such traffic. In this work we perform a measurement study of the content shared over the popular BitTorrent P2P file sharing network. We mathematically model the file size distributions of shared files after categorizing them into Audio, Video, Archive and CD image classes. For each of these categories we look into the most popular shared file formats and investigate their file size statistics. This provides an important milestone to building a realistic simulation framework for P2P systems, and for future analytical modeling of P2P networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Two case studies explore the reciprocal influence between technological change and Internet governance. Both focus on the use by Internet service providers of a new capability known as deep packet inspection (DPI). DPI was used by major network operators in the U.S. and Canada to block or restrict the speed of peer to peer file sharing traffic by their customers. In both cases, DPI implementations led to public protests, litigation and major regulatory proceedings. In both cases, network neutrality norms were used to challenge DPI deployments. The paper''s descriptive comparison is supplemented by quantitative data drawn from the use of Glasnost, a network test that allows third parties to detect BitTorrent throttling via DPI. The paper asks whether the use of DPI by ISPs disrupted the way the Internet is regulated, and whether political and institutional factors alter or constrain DPI use. It finds that the power to shape traffic flows redistributes control among actors in the Internet ecosystem, generating broad political economy debates about efficiency, fairness, innovation and transparency. But the actual results of those conflicts are indeterminate, reflecting institutional and historical contingencies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper develops analytical models that characterize the behavior of on-demand stored media content delivery using BitTorrent-like protocols. The models capture the effects of different piece selection policies, including Rarest-First, two variants of In-Order, and two probabilistic policies (Portion and Zipf). Our models provide insight into system behavior and help explain the sluggishness of the system with In-Order streaming. We use the models to compare different retrieval policies across a wide range of system parameters, including peer arrival rate, upload/download bandwidth, and seed residence time. We also provide quantitative results on the startup delays and retrieval times for streaming media delivery. Our results provide insights into the design tradeoffs for on-demand media streaming in peer-to-peer networks. Finally, the models are validated using simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper we present a solution that makes BitTorrent content transfer for mobile device more energy efficient. The main idea of the research is that instead of downloading the content via BitTorrent directly to the mobile phone, an intermediate proxy is used which sends the data to the phone in high speed bursts. This results in smaller energy footprint compared with regular BitTorrent data transfer. Furthermore, we focus on how the proxy can be hosted on memory limited broadband routers which are available in almost every home. We define an analytical model which can be used to analyze the memory allocation strategies of the proxy peers and predict how proxy peers influence the P2P community performance. We verify our model via simulations. We also present measurement results with real life torrents using our prototype system running on home routers and Symbian based mobile phones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: IP multicast has been proved to be unfeasible for deployment, Application Layer Multicast (ALM) Based on end multicast system is practical and more scalable than IP multicast in Internet. In this paper, an ALM protocol called Scalable multicast for High Definition streaming media (SHD) is proposed in which end to end transmission capability is fully cultivated for HD media transmission without increasing much control overhead. Similar to the transmission style of BiTtorrent, hosts only forward part of data piece according to the available bandwidth that improves the usage of bandwidth greatly. On the other hand, some novel strategies are adopted to overcome the disadvantages of BiTtorrent protocol in streaming media transmission. Data transmission between hosts is implemented in many-one transmission style in Hierarchical architecture in most circumstances. Simulations implemented on Internet-like topology indicate that SHD achieves low link stress, end to end latency and stability. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

BitTorrent nowadays is one of the most important peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing applications on the Internet, and it has also inspired many other P2P applications such as live or on-demand video streaming services. On the other hand, Network Address Translation (NAT) has become pervasive in almost all networking scenarios, from residential Internet access to enterprise networks. Despite the effort of NAT traversal, it is still very likely that P2P applications cannot receive incoming connection requests properly if they are behind NAT. To quantify the performance impact of NAT on BitTorrent-like P2P systems, we have created and validated a detailed but tractable mathematical model. We have also proposed and briefly examined a simple but effective strategy to mitigate the negative impact on NAT peers. In this paper, we further extend our model to cover the proposed biased optimistic unchoke strategy, and optimize the system performance in terms of both average peer download time and system finish time. We also create a new, faster Java-based BitTorrent simulator, which is used to validate the extended model and show the optimality of the proposed strategy and its boundary conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: BitTorrent is a popular peer-to-peer file sharing system and a target file shared through BitTorrent is partitioned into pieces and downloaded from multiple peers in parallel in order to shorten the download process. However, due to peer dynamics in P2P networks, rare pieces may be lost and thus lead to the so-called last piece problem. BitTorrent employs rarest-first piece selection algorithm to deal with this problem, but its efficacy is limited because each peer only has a local view of piece rareness. In this paper, we propose an Interest-Intended Piece Selection (IIPS) algorithm aiming at better alleviating the last piece problem while maintaining stable cooperation between peers. IIPS is named interest intended in that every IIPS peer favors pieces that, if downloaded, would increase the probability of being interesting to its cooperating peers. Simulation results show that IIPS achieves less occurrences of piece loss under tough conditions and slightly outperforms the BitTorrent’s rarest-first algorithm in terms of higher piece diversity. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Internet file sharing via the use of peer-to-peer networks is an activity that has been growing steadily for several years. It has rapidly become the most widespread method for the exchange of digital material and as a result raises much controversy. The current, most popular protocol in this field is BitTorrent. Although it is relatively simple in most cases to link particular file sharing activities to an IP address, this does little to prove that a particular user was responsible for using the connection. This study explores three popular BitTorrent client applications, BitComet, Vuze and μTorrent and outlines the registry artefacts that are produced by the installation and use of these programs on a Windows 7 client. These artefacts are examined in detail to establish what useful evidence, if any, can be recovered from them. Relevant information is highlighted for each application. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: At present, BitTorrent protocol packets constitute a large part of peer-to-peer application traffic on the Internet. Due to the increasing amount of BitTorrent traffic, it has become inevitable to take into account its effects on network management. Generally, studies on BitTorrent traffic measurement have involved analysis with packets transmitted via IPv4 protocol. However, with several facilities provided by IPv6 protocol, its traffic volume in operational networks is increasing day by day. New features of IPv6 enhance packet processing speeds over routers, switches and end systems. We consider that traffic features and packet traffic characteristics are likely to be affected with increasing amount of IPv6 protocol traffic. Therefore, it becomes significant to explore IPv6 packet traffic characteristics and application traffic features over IPv6. In this study, we investigate the IPv6 BitTorrent packet traffic characteristics in terms of autocorrelation, power spectral density and self similarity of packet size and packet interarrival time. We also perform distribution modeling for IPv4 and IPv6 BitTorrent packet traffic. With these models, efficient packet traffic traces are generated for network simulation studies. A detailed comparison is performed to determine differences between IPv4 and IPv6 BitTorrent packet traffic. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Peer-to-peer (P2P) networking technology has gained popularity as an efficient mechanism for users to obtain free services without the need for centralized servers. Protecting these networks from intruders and attackers is a real challenge. One of the constant threats on P2P networks is the propagation of active worms. Recent events show that active worms can spread automatically and flood the Internet in a very short period of time. Therefore, P2P systems can be a potential vehicle for active worms to achieve fast worm propagation in the Internet. Nowadays, BitTorrent is becoming more and more popular, mainly due its fair load distribution mechanism. Unfortunately, BitTorrent is particularly vulnerable to topology aware active worms. In this paper we analyze the impact of a new worm propagation threat on BitTorrent. We identify the BitTorrent vulnerabilities it exploits, the characteristics that accelerate and decelerate its propagation, and develop a mathematical model of their propagation. We also provide numerical analysis results. This will help the design of efficient detection and containment systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past few years, P2P file distribution applications (e.g., BitTorrent) are becoming so popular that they are the dominating source of Internet traffic. This creates significant problems to Internet Service Providers (ISPs), not only because of the added complexity in traffic engineering, but the increase of traffic, in particular on the cross-ISP links, implies congestion and a higher operating cost. In this paper, we consider an ISP-friendly file distribution protocol which uses the "exploiting-the-locality principle" (ELP) to reduce the cross-ISP traffic. To show its benefit, we derive an upper and lower bound of cross-ISP traffic for the protocols which rely on ELP and show that the cross-ISP traffic can be reduced significantly when the number of peers within an ISP increases. To carry out realistic study, we design and implement our ISP-friendly protocol (which is compatible with the current BitTorrent protocol) and carry out large scale experiments on PlanetLab to measure the reduction of the cross ISP-traffic and the file downloading time. More important, we also show how the proposed ISP-friendly protocol can handle the "black-hole" security attack. This paper sheds light on the merits and design direction of ISP-friendly content distribution protocols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In Technics and Time, 1, Bernard Stiegler (1998) challenged the prevalent philosophical distinction between tekhnē and ēpistēmē, arguing that humans are fundamentally technical beings. According to Stiegler, the industrialization of civilization led to a disequilibrium in the evolution of culture and the evolution of technics, with technics evolving more quickly than culture. Stiegler''s discussions of technics, culture, time, and memory provide a useful theoretical framework for understanding some of the cultural implications of copyright issues, which are often viewed in terms of economics, legality, and/or ethics. In this article, I focus on the intellectual property debate as it pertains to peer-to-peer networks and the music industry. Drawing from Technics and Time, I theoretically frame these issues as a problem of temporality, memory, and a disconnect in the evolution of culture and technology. I then use small-scale/observational ethnographic analysis to examine a private torrent community to consider how torrent communities are cultural phenomena, the implications of this assumption, and how these considerations might inform or extend existing approaches to issues of intellectual property. More broadly, I ask, what are the affordances of thinking about these economic, legal, and political issues from a cultural framework? [Copyright &y& Elsevier]