Question

Explain how a P2P system like BitTorrent acts as a Distributed System. Also explain how the BitTorrent process works.

Answer 1

P2P stands for Peer-to-Peer, it is a computing or networking based on the distributed system architecture as it divides the load among the Peers, there is no central server which takes the load on itself. Peer is a participant in the application or network that has equal strength and capability like others. Peers are meant to form a network of nodes without the help of any centralized server. Peers share their portion of resources like computing power, network bandwidth and storage available to other Peers. It is different than the Client-Server architecture where there is a centralized server, where one consumes and other supplies but here in the P2P network each and every Peer(participant) is a consumer and supplier both or you can say client and server both. If a Peer is consuming network bandwidth then it must be supplying its network bandwidth to other Peers also.

  

P2P network has the following properties:

• Decentralization
• Self-organized
• Multiple Administrative Domains
• Protected against faults and attacks
• Enormous and diverse availability of resources

In Client-Server architecture, if you want to download a file, you send a request to the server via browser and the server gives you the URL where the file is located. But here you use BitTorrent which is a software working on P2P protocol, it locates the system or you can say peers who already have that file and running file-sharing software which you want to download instead of looking for the file over the internet and then it sends out a request to peers and starts the download. Others can also download the files that you have on your hard drive as you are also working as a supplier. Some peers after downloading their file disconnect the system from the internet which prevents others from downloading so for this BitTorrent has a feature of Tit for Tat known as Tracker where the BitTorrent asks if you want to receive files then you have to give also. It downloads small-small pieces of the file from multiple computers and then combines them. That is why the downloading speed is much faster than the ordinary downloading via the browser.

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