A possibility for ISP and P2P collaboration

Peer-to-peer (P2P) systems offer astounding possibilities to their users. As such P2P users are a good source of revenue for the Internet service providers (ISPs). But the immense volume of P2P traffic also poses a significant challenges to the ISPs. P2P systems have to either build their overlay topologies agnostic of the underlay topology or measure the path performance themselves. Accordingly, routing in P2P systems is often suboptimal and largely independent of the Internet routing. In addition, the ISP looses control of its traffic. This situation is disadvantageous for both: the ISPs and the P2P users.To overcome this, we suggest that ISPs and P2P systems collaborate. We propose and evaluate the feasibility of a solution where the ISP offers an ldquooraclerdquo to the P2P users. When the P2P user supplies the oracle with a list of possible P2P nodes, the oracle ranks them according to certain criteria, like their proximity to the user or higher bandwidth links. This can be used by the P2P user to choose appropriate neighbors, and therefore improve its performance. The ISP can use this mechanism to better manage the immense P2P traffic, e.g., to keep it inside its network, or to direct it along a desired path.