Towards Open Tracing of P2P File Sharing Systems

Since the release of Napster in 1999, peer-to-peer file-sharing has enjoyed a dramatic rise in popularity. A 2000 study by Plonka on the University of Wisconsin campus network found that file-sharing accounted for a comparable volume of traffic to web applications, while a 2002 study by Saroiu et al. on the University of Washington campus network found that file-sharing accounted for more than treble the volume of web traffic observed, thus affirming the significance of P2P in the context of Internet traffic. Empirical studies of peer-to-peer traffic are essential for supporting the design of next-generation peer-to-peer systems, informing the provisioning of network infrastructure and underpinning the policing of peer-to-peer systems.