An architecture for P2P locality in managed networks using hierarchical trackers

Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks have in the past years become a very attractive method for delivery of media content over the Internet. Many factors have contributed to this success, but the low delivery costs and the inherent scalability of the P2P networks whereby consumers of content are also potential sources are among the most prominent ones. However, the effectiveness and performance of many popular P2P networks (such as BitTorrent based ones) is highly dependent on how well trackers select peers that will provide a content. The peers chosen by a tracker will directly affect the user-perceived performance of the service and the usage of network resources. Moreover, P2P networks have usually no locality awareness, resulting in sub-optimal utilization of network resources. In order to address these issues, we propose a novel hierarchical architecture for P2P locality targeted at managed P2P networks based on the BitTorrent protocol. We then show, through experimentation, that the adoption of the proposed architecture leads to significant network efficiency improvements without compromising end-user experience.