Fair resource allocation in peer-to-peer networks (extended version)

The first peer-to-peer (P2P) networks were based mainly on the altruistic behavior of the peers. Although newer implementations incorporate some kind of incentive mechanism to award sharing peers, no P2P network assures a guaranteed service rate.This article is meant as a first step towards the development of P2P networks with guaranteed service rate. We propose a distributed resource allocation algorithm where peers control the service rates to their neighbors. This algorithm is based on the congestion pricing principle known from IP networks and ensures some form of fairness. Hence a peer gets a fair share of the resources available in the P2P network weighted by its contribution to the network.We study the convergence properties of the distributed algorithm and validate them by simulation. Further simulation results present the functionality of the algorithm in large and varying networks. The results indicate a fair allocation of the resources even when the service rates of some peers deteriorate due to errors.