Performance evaluation of traffic management mechanisms for Peer-to-Peer networks

Most network operators, excluding tier 1, pay for the inter-domain transmissions, i.e., the data which is sent to and from their managed networks. As Peer-to-Peer applications generate a substantial amount of traffic in telecommunication networks today, the operators feel the need to manage it effectively. The problem is that the created overlay network is independent from the physical network, and is therefore, difficult to manage. We show that it is possible to efficiently influence Peer-to-Peer overlay networks in a way which provides benefits for both the operator and the peers. As a result, operators observe significant reduction of the inter-domain traffic, whereas, peers achieve better performance. We present and assess five approaches for economic traffic management. The most promising, i.e., QoS-awareness and Highly Active Peer are described in details and evaluated through simulations. We show that by providing proper incentives to end-users, traffic inside the overlay can be efficiently managed.