Comcast Tests New P2P Protocol, Nearly Doubles Download Speeds
Here’s something you don’t expect to see: Comcast taking part in a test of new P4P file sharing protocol that offers up greatly increased speeds. And they actually want to make its use widespread. What’s the catch here?
Essentially, the system localises peer-to-peer file sharing. Right now, when you hop on a torrent, you download and upload data from and to people all over the world. It’s quite inefficient. P4P prioritises peers who are on your local ISP network, making downloads both much faster and much more efficient.
The system relies on iTrackers being installed on ISPs networks. The more networks that run iTrackers, the better the P4P system will run and the faster the speeds will be. Comcast is pushing to make the iTrackers an Internet Engineering Task Force standard, which would help the spread and use of the software greatly.
They want this because this is an actual win/win situation in the file-sharing front. P2P users get better speeds and Comcast gets less load on their backbone. Group hug, y’all! [Ars Technica]
- Next Post: How To Tether the G1 »
- « Previous Post: Sky Village ‘Pixel Tower’ is Sustainable, Adaptable and Really Weird Looking
Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
Wouldn’t this make the ISP’s liable for any illegal content??
If they’re hosting a server that directs to illegal files, arguably making those illegal files available to other users, the ISP is making available illegal material..
My local ISP offers a service somewhat like this, but it requires users to set up the servers.. they just provide the network infrastructure and turn a blind eye to any content that is shared..
@StevoTheDevo The ISP’s aren’t hosting the data themselves, the iTracker just looks for peers on your Local ISp before it searches all the other ISP’s. Should make the process a lot fast.
Think of it as searching on the LAN before going on to the WAN
yeah, james is right… but how would this make the ISP liable? if you think about it, the ISP has no control over what you download neither has the ability to monitor what you download, due to privacy invasion, therefore they are in no way liable.
Keep in mind, there are legal uses for P2P and the ISP isn’t responsible for sorting out the legal users and illegal ones.
Besides, the download server’s won’t be under ISP control, they will be elsewhere in the world.
Sorry for the long explanation, but i couldn’t explain it any other way… but like james said, all it does is filter to your locale before searching the rest of the world