Virtual Peer P2P Content Distribution

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Solution Overview

Problem

In peer-to-peer networks, downloading server-based content can lead to network congestion and increased costs due to simultaneous requests from multiple peers, especially when the content is large and not available on peers, forcing multiple peers to access the central server directly.

Innovation Solution

Implementing a system that uses a virtual peer to distribute server-based content across peers, allowing peers to download content from each other and minimizing direct access to the server by marking available content on peers as 'available' and content on the server as 'missing', thus reducing server load and costs.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If multiple peers simultaneously request server-based content from the central server, then each peer can obtain the content directly from the server, but network congestion increases and server load increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecontent availabilityVSAvoidnetwork congestion

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSObject-generated harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The content is divided into multiple chunks that can be distributed across different peers. Instead of all peers downloading the complete content from the server simultaneously, each peer downloads specific chunks from the server and then shares those chunks with other peers, segmenting the download load across multiple sources.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

Peers that have downloaded content chunks act as intermediaries between the server and other peers. These intermediary peers relay content chunks to requesting peers, reducing direct server traffic and distributing the network load through intermediate nodes in the P2P network.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Reliability

If multiple peers simultaneously request server-based content from the central server, then each peer can obtain the content directly from the server, but server load increases and costs increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecontent availabilityVSAvoidnetwork cost

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSLoss of energy

Solution Approach 1:

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

Content chunks are copied from the server to multiple peers, creating redundant copies distributed across the network. These copies can then be shared among peers without additional server traffic, eliminating the need for the server to transmit the same data multiple times to different peers.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #26Copying

3Device complexity

If peers download content directly from the server without P2P sharing, then the download process is simple, but download speed decreases and network efficiency decreases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedownload process complexityVSAvoiddownload speed

Core Design Contradiction:

Device complexityVSSpeed

Solution Approach 1:

The content is divided into multiple chunks that can be downloaded simultaneously from multiple peers in parallel, increasing the aggregate download speed compared to a single peer-server connection.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

Multiple peer-to-peer connections are merged into a single download process, allowing a requesting peer to simultaneously receive content chunks from multiple different peers, combining their bandwidth resources to achieve faster download speeds.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #5Merging (Combining)

4Stability of the object's composition

If all content is stored on the central server, then data consistency is maintained, but network transfer efficiency decreases when content is available on peers

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedata consistencyVSAvoiddata transfer efficiency

Core Design Contradiction:

Stability of the object's compositionVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

A virtual peer representing the server acts as an intermediary that provides a unified interface for content access. This virtual peer coordinates chunk distribution and ensures that peers download from appropriate sources (actual peers or the server) while maintaining the illusion of a centralized system, thus preserving data consistency semantics.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

Content chunks are copied from the centralized server to multiple distributed peers, creating redundant copies that can be accessed locally or shared peer-to-peer. This copying strategy maintains data availability and consistency while enabling efficient distributed transfer without requiring all data to remain centralized.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #26Copying

Data Source

PatentUS11553014B2Downloading of server-based content through peer-to-peer networks

Publication Date: 2023.01.10 VMWARE INC

AI summary

A system is described for downloading server-based content to peers in a P2P network. The server-based content can be partitioned and different peers can be given priority for downloading the different parts. A client on each peer can view what content is available on each of the other peers as well as what content is available on a virtual peer, which represents content on the server and only makes content that exists on the server and not on any peers available for download. Consequently, a client on a peer requesting to download the content can download the content from the peers and the virtual peer based on a file sharing protocol, such as BitTorrent.