Peer-to-peer file sharing across private networks using proxy servers

Thesis Abstract

The Internet today is commonly used as a medium to share large size multimedia

content. This sharing is carried out, a number of times, through the Peer to Peer

sharing architecture rather than the conventional server-client model. The paucity

of network addresses in the Internet has led to the emergence of private and global

networks. Because the identity of peers in a private network remains hidden behind

their global endpoint, P2P applications cannot run between two peers in separate

private networks. Techniques such as hole-punching require the use of a centralized

entity which serves as a bottleneck to the P2P application.

We have proposed a hierarchical P2P network of private and global networks. Here, the

lower tier is formed by the peers in each private network, while the upper tier is formed

by the global endpoints (called proxies) of each of these private networks. We have

designed a new file sharing protocol, FTPNP, between these proxies which preserves

the identities of the actual endpoints of the file transfer, present in separate private

networks. We have also created a Credit Management System in order to ensure fairness

and incentive to share in the designed hierarchical P2P system. We have implemented

all the above proposed features and tested them to ensure the preservation of the

essential features of a P2P network.