On Transport Layer Support for Peer-to-Peer Networks

TCP is the transport protocol used predominantly in the Internet as well as in peer-to-peer networks. However, peerto-peer networks exhibit very different characteristics from those of conventional client-server networks. In this paper, we argue that the unique characteristics of peer-to-peer networks render TCP inappropriate for effective data transport in such networks. Specifically, we motivate transport layer support for multipoint-to-point connections to address the problem of sources in peer-to-peer networks lacking serverlike properties in terms of capacity and availability. We outline several key elements in designing a new transport protocol for supporting effective multipoint-to-point connections. Finally, we present a case study for a multipointto-point transport protocol that puts together these design elements in practice. We thus motivate further research along this direction.