On the cost of participating in a peer-to-peer network

Abstract

In this paper, we model the cost incurred by each peer participating in a peer-to-peer network. Such a cost model allows to gauge potential disincentives for peers to collaborate, and provides a measure of the "total cost" of a network, which is a possible benchmark to distinguish between proposals. We characterize the cost imposed on a node as a function of the experienced load and the node connectivity, and express benefits in terms of cost reduction. We discuss the notion of social optimum with respect to the proposed cost model, and show how our model applies to a few proposed routing geometries for distributed hash tables (DHTs). We further outline a number of open questions this research has raised. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2004.