Towards Operator-managed P2P Content Delivery with Application Layer Traffic Optimization

P2P technology provides a flexible and very popular way of content delivery for various services, including networked media applications. However, P2P-based content delivery generates large amount of backbone traffic. Recently, several approaches have been proposed for guiding P2P services based on operator preferences, in order to reduce the amount of costly backbone traffic generated by P2P applications. Application Layer Traffic Optimization (ALTO) is a one key approach for such managed P2P applications. In short, ALTO is a dedicated service, operated by a network operator or ISP, which can provide useful network layer information to application layer clients for improved peer selection and corresponding content delivery. This paper provides an overview of standardisation and research activities for improving P2P content delivery with ALTO which are carried out within the EU FP7 project NAPA-WINE. In particular, we give an overview on standardisation efforts, present simulation results, explain our prototypical implementation of the ALTO concept, and highlight ongoing large-scale operational trials we are currently conducting within the network of Polish Telecom and among NAPA-WINE partnersEU FP-7 NAPA-WIN

Experiences with large-scale operational trials of ALTO-enhanced P2P filesharing in an intra-ISP scenario

Application Layer Traffic Optimization (ALTO) has recently gained attention in the research and standardisation community as a way for a network operator to guide the peer selection process of distributed applications by providing network layer topology information. In particular P2P applications are expected to gain from ALTO, due to the many connections peers form among each other, often without taking network layer topology information into account. In this paper, we present results of an extensive intra-ISP trial with an ALTO-enhanced P2P filesharing software. In summary, our results show that—depending on the concrete setting and on the distribution of upload capacity in the network—ALTO enables an ISP to save operational costs significantly while not degrading application layer performance noticeably. In addition, based on our experience we are able to give advice to operators on how to save costs with ALTO while not sacrificing application layer performance at all