Analyzing Sharing in Peer-to-Peer Networks Under Various Congestion Measures

Monica Johar (), Syam Menon () and Vijay Mookerjee ()
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Monica Johar: The Belk College of Business, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, North Carolina 28223
Syam Menon: School of Management, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas 75080
Vijay Mookerjee: School of Management, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas 75080

Information Systems Research, 2011, vol. 22, issue 2, 325-345

Abstract: Historically, the use of peer-to-peer (P2P) networks has been limited primarily to user-initiated exchanges of (mostly music) files over the Internet. This traditional view of P2P networks is changing, however, and the use of P2P networks has been suggested for delivering general-purpose content over the Web (or corporate intranets), even in real time. We analyze sharing in a P2P community in this new context under three different congestion measures: delay, jitter, and packet loss. Sharing is important to study in the presence of congestion because most existing research on P2P networks views congestion in the network as a relatively insignificant criterion. However, when delivering general-purpose content, congestion and its relationship to sharing is a critical factor that influences end-user performance. This paper looks at P2P networks from this new perspective by explicitly considering the effects of congestion on user incentives for sharing. We also propose a simple incentive mechanism that induces socially optimal sharing.

Keywords: peer-to-peer networks; congestion; sharing; socially optimal sharing; free-riders (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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