Comprehensive view of a live network coding P2P system

In this paper we present the first implementation of a P2P content distribution system that uses Network Coding. Using results from live trials with several hundred nodes, we provide a detailed performance analysis of such P2P system. In contrast to prior work, which mainly relies on monitoring P2P systems at particular locations, we are able to provide performance results from a variety of novel angles by monitoring all components in the P2P distribution. In particular, we show that Network Coding is practical in a P2P setting since it incurs little overhead, both in terms of CPU processing and IO activity, and it results in smooth, fast downloads, and efficient server utilization. We also study the importance of topology construction algorithms in real scenarios and study the effect of peers behind NATs and firewalls, showing that the system is surprisingly robust to large number of unreachable peers. Finally, we present performance results related to verifying network encoded blocks on-the-fly using special security primitives called Secure-Random-Checksums.