p2p Explained

Peer – to – peer networks are the most common and cost efficient source of networking that is utilized as of now.  All computers possesses same status within the network and no computer control any other computer but it self, this network does not have server to control and monitor. Security level is not towards higher side and each work station it self is responsible for security (ref: http://www.wifinotes.com/computer-networks/network-types.html). Using p2p models files can be shared among computers. Files like, videos, audios, pictures, spreadsheets and all digital media can be sent or received with in the network. Printers, scanners and internet can be shared with in all computers.

An important piece that is chosen for p2p technology is the amount of computers that will be on a specific network.  A p2p network can operate effectively without a central computer with as many as fifteen computers at one time (ref:  http://www.wifinotes.com/computer-networks/network-types.html).  If your interest is growing your network and sharing information over more than fifteen computers, a client-server model network is more a inept to your needs.  With that being said, the functionality of a network for a client – server model is not as free as a p2p model.  The client – server model is a form where one computer is dedicated as a centralized communication piece to clients on the network (ref: http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/280000/274441/p3-lewandowski.pdf?key1=274441&key2=0511022921&coll=DL&dl=ACM&CFID=1891405&CFTOKEN=47713420).  It has much more storage for access by clients existing on the network and can be controlled with reasonable amounts of capital to provide a limited network to a specific amount of clients.  Again, if your network exceeds bandwidth over too many computers per server, additional servers may be required for efficiency  (ref:  http://www.wifinotes.com/computer-networks/network-types.html).  The barriers to entry in this case increase.

An interesting way to look at the difference is that of Napster and Grokster.  Grokster is a file sharing network that utilizes Gnutella are more of a classic p2p networking scheme.  The objective of Gnutella is file sharing over smaller networks that are individualized by an “ultrapeer” or a connected server that holds storage of what networks are holding what files and then directs traffic to those networks (ref:  http://www.techterms.com/definition/gnutella).  Classic p2p would involve simply the internal network, but access to billions of files are possible with this model, however, the classic nature of the p2p is still intact.  Illustrated below is the protocol for Napster vs. Gnuetella model to help explain this process visually.

Napster, as you can see, has more of a client and server model with a centralized theme than that of a Gnutella network.  Napster, as in centralized peer-to-peer systems, a central server is used for indexing functions and to bootstrap the entire system.  As illustrated above, the identifying pieces were centrally owned servers by Napster that controlled the functionality on a centralized level.  This is not so much the case with a Gnutella network.