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We studied the topology and protocols of the public Gnutella network. Its substantial user base and open architecture make it a good large-scale, if uncontrolled, testbed. We captured the network's topology, generated traffic, and dynamic behavior to determine its connectivity structure and how well (if at all) Gnutella's overlay network topology maps to the physical Internet infrastructure. Our analysis of the network allowed us to evaluate costs and benefits of the peer-to-peer (P2P) approach and to investigate possible improvements that would allow better scaling and increased reliability in Gnutella and similar networks. A mismatch between Gnutella's overlay network topology and the Internet infrastructure has critical performance implications.
Matei et al. (Tue,) studied this question.