Bit Torrent Spec

[thayerdhan]

Hi,

I have been reading the BitTorrent spec I have a couple of questions:

1. Does a client choke all peers in which it is not interested, i.e.,
the only way to get a piece is by EXCHANGE (both client and selected
peer have pieces of interest to each other)?

2. If the above is true, the only way to get a piece upon joining the
system would be from a seed, since none of the other peers would be
interested in you, is this what happens?

The above would be correct from a game theoretic (selfish) point of view.

Sorry if the question seems very basic, but I cannot find a definite
answer to this in the "Incentive Build Robustness in Bit Torrent" or
the protocol spec.

Thanks,
Ineme






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[Olaf van der Spek]

Post by thayerdhan
Hi,
1. Does a client choke all peers in which it is not interested, i.e.,
the only way to get a piece is by EXCHANGE (both client and selected
peer have pieces of interest to each other)?

No.

Post by thayerdhan
2. If the above is true, the only way to get a piece upon joining the
system would be from a seed, since none of the other peers would be
interested in you, is this what happens?
The above would be correct from a game theoretic (selfish) point of view.
Sorry if the question seems very basic, but I cannot find a definite
answer to this in the "Incentive Build Robustness in Bit Torrent" or
the protocol spec.
Thanks,
Ineme
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[Vitenka]

Post by thayerdhan
1. Does a client choke all peers in which it is not interested, i.e.,
the only way to get a piece is by EXCHANGE (both client and selected
peer have pieces of interest to each other)?

Generally no. Peers will usually unchoke any and all peers. Though
there's nothing in the actual spec requiring this - as long as you can
talk the protocol you can be a valid bittorrent client.

Post by thayerdhan
2. If the above is true, the only way to get a piece upon joining the
system would be from a seed, since none of the other peers would be
interested in you, is this what happens?

Not always. Though generally seeds favor new clients, and existing
lclients tend to favour those giving them good rates - so they don't
usually get to the new peer for a while.

Post by thayerdhan
The above would be correct from a game theoretic (selfish) point of view.

Not quite. Remember that peers keep a history of what rates they got
from other peers. Since seeds tend to do rarest first sending (not all,
but many), you can end up with the only available copy of a rare piece
being held by the 'new' peer (perhaps even as its only piece.) Then
you'd want a good record of having sent data to that peer, in order to
get ahold of it.

Post by thayerdhan
Sorry if the question seems very basic, but I cannot find a definite
answer to this in the "Incentive Build Robustness in Bit Torrent" or
the protocol spec.

In general, though - you are right. A peer joining an existing swarm
gets a lower data rate until they have acquired a few pieces. If that
peer is sensible, it will acquire pieces which are in demand from other
clients (and many seeds will help with this) and then it will be able to
actively join the normal peer swarm.

In closing: It doesn't HAVE to be that way, but it oftren is.



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[guanying_wang]

Post by thayerdhan
Hi,
1. Does a client choke all peers in which it is not interested, i.e.,
the only way to get a piece is by EXCHANGE (both client and selected
peer have pieces of interest to each other)?
2. If the above is true, the only way to get a piece upon joining the
system would be from a seed, since none of the other peers would be
interested in you, is this what happens?
The above would be correct from a game theoretic (selfish) point of view.
Sorry if the question seems very basic, but I cannot find a definite
answer to this in the "Incentive Build Robustness in Bit Torrent" or
the protocol spec.
Thanks,
Ineme

seems you are reading the paper, IMO optimistic unchoking is what you
want. peers select random peers for optimistic unchoking, so new
comers can get some blocks.

Guanying







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