Rarest first and choke algorithms are enough

The performance of peer-to-peer file replication comes from its piece and peer selection strategies. Two such strategies have been introduced by the BitTorrent protocol: the rarest first and choke algorithms. Whereas it is commonly admitted that BitTorrent performs well, recent studies have proposed the replacement of the rarest first and choke algorithms in order to improve efficiency and fairness. In this paper, we use results from real experiments to advocate that the replacement of the rarest first and choke algorithms cannot be justified in the context of peer-to-peer file replication in the Internet. We instrumented a BitTorrent client and ran experiments on real torrents with different characteristics. Our experimental evaluation is peer oriented, instead of tracker oriented, which allows us to get detailed information on all exchanged messages and protocol events. We go beyond the mere observation of the good efficiency of both algorithms. We show that the rarest first...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: IMC
• Authors: Arnaud Legout, Guillaume Urvoy-Keller, Pietro Michiardi
• Keywords: Choke Algorithm, IMC 2006, Peer Selection Strategies, Peer-to-peer file Replication