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. This paper surveys existing work in the field of peer-to- peer monitoring and based upon this assessment of the state-ofthe- art describes the design and implementation of the Open P2P tracing system, which aims to improve the research community’s understanding of P2P file sharing systems by providing continuous and up-to-date traffic data which is anonymized and made freely accessible to all interested parties. Data from this system has been used in a variety of projects and papers, which are used to illustrate the broad range of research that can benefit from an open tracing system