The Internet, it turns out, may have room enough for everyone. Even the most bandwidth-hogging digital pirates.That, at least, is the hope of two professors from the University of Washington and Yale University. They plan to present research at a conference in Seattle on Thursday describing a new and speedier way to send data across the Internet. Their technique, based on an algorithm they call P4P, could eventually offer a less controversial version of peer-to-peer file sharing, a practice that has flooded the Internet with pirated music and movies and ignited debate over what online content broadband providers should regulate.Peer-to-peer file-sharing, online pirates’ favorite channel for transferring copyrighted movies and music, now accounts for 40% to 60% of all Internet traffic.
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Now, professors Arvind Krishnamurthy of the University of Washington and Richard Yang of Yale say they have a better way to solve broadband providers’ woes. Their algorithm, which they call P4P or “local file-sharing,” tracks users’ locations to find the shortest path across the Internet. The result, they say, should please both sides of the peer-to-peer debate: Users can download files about 20% faster than conventional file-sharing, while cutting the bandwidth requirements by more than a factor of five.
www.forbes.com/infrastructure/2008/08/20/filesharing-internet-p4p-tech-cionetwork-cx_ag_0821fileshare.html