By Sourabh Kalantri, Laptop Logic
Mar 17, 2008

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1Recent tests conducted by Verizon on its broadband network reveal that large files can be moved quickly and more efficiently on the internet using an updated P2P file transfer system.

The new P2P protocol guides the selection of file sources and network pathways rather than letting the selection happen randomly, or using criteria that don't maximize efficiency. The new system addresses a growing challenge to Internet service providers (ISPs) and network carriers as P2P networking becomes more and more common. Because many files transferred today using P2P are so massive, P2P sharing can account for well beyond half of total Internet traffic, according to industry estimates.

"The results of the testing have been phenomenal," said Douglas Pasko, Verizon senior technologist and co-chair of the P4P Working Group, and co-chair Laird Popkin of Pando Networks. "Customer and network benefits were seen as soon as the test began. This new system, which routes files along the fastest, least expensive path, offers our FiOS customers P2P downloads up to six times faster than networks without the overlay, the study showed. On average, download speeds using other Internet access technologies improve by about 60 percent."

Traditionally, the P2P network has randomly selected where the file came from, ignorant of the physical location of the data and sometimes using a "brute force" approach to compensate for long-distance delivery delays. With the experimental software, developed by Yale University and Pando Networks, and using network data provided by Verizon, the network selects the sources that provide the least cost and fastest route for the delivery of the file to Verizon customers.

The new P2P protocol is dubbed unofficiall as P4P. What it actually means is that instead of choosing random peers depending on availability, peers will be selected in such a way that network traffic isn't affected adversely but the user continues to enjoy fast network speeds based on selective peer adoption. And in the process, the ISP costs are also greatly reduced.

This initiative is a complete contrast to Comcast which has publicly admitted that they slow down P2P transfers for some users to reduce overall load on network.
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