Classifying peer-to-peer network coding schemes
Christian Ortolf, Christian Schindelhauer, Arne Vater · 2009
Modern peer-to-peer file sharing systems distribute large files among peers using block partitioning. Blocks can be redistributed by a peer even before the whole file is available which highly decreases the distribution time. All peer-to-peer networks face the problem of dynamic participation of the peers and dynamic bandwidth in the network. A leaving peer can cause an unrecoverable loss of blocks and obstruct further downloads of the file. Furthermore, the choice which block needs to be sent to which peer is a hard question. A random choice leads to the coupon collector problem which decreases the transmission rate. Filesharing networks like BitTorrent or Splitstream face such problems.