P2P Networking and Applications

Preface

Rationale

Peer-to-peer networking has emerged as a viable business model and systems architecture for Internet-scale applications. Although its technological roots trace back through several decades of designing distributed information systems, contemporary applications demonstrate that it is an effective way to build applications that connect millions of users across the globe without reliance on specially deployed servers. Instead, by combining the resources of each user's computer, these systems automatically self-organize and adapt to changing peer populations while providing services for content sharing and personal communications.

Public attention to peer-to-peer applications came first from highly popular file-sharing systems, ...