Swarm Structure

The concept of the swarm structure of a peer to peer file sharing network has stayed a constant since the 2nd generation of peer to peer file sharing protocols. When a use wants a file, they will go to a website and look up the file that they are in search of and download the tracker or .torrent file. From this point, the peer to peer file sharing client then connects to the URLs in the torrent tracker files and begins to make connections with various nodes around the world who have part or all of the file in question. The minute the client starts to make connections to other nodes or computers, then then join the swarm for that particular file. In general, the peers in the network, or leechers will trade file parts until they both have all of the pieces, or until they both are lacking certain pieces. It is only at this point that a client or node will begin to download directly from a seed.

It is for this reason that while downloading a file, you may be connected to multiple seeds for the file in question but may not be downloading directly from them. It is the basic hierarchy of the protocol which states the rarest files first. The main reason for this is the simple fact that seeds, especially the original seeder, should by now already shared a substantial amount of the file during the download itself. Because they have most likely met the basic share ratio of 1.5 to 1 they no longer need to be part of the general population of the swarm and instead, only give out pieces when there are none available, which technically should never happen.

This type pf hierarchy on the network is usually very efficient, except in the cases where certain nodes may choose o download certain files in certain orders. Although by default, a user is forced to download based on the rarest first protocol, due to the customizability of the particular peer to peer file sharing client, any user can choose which files to download in which order. A use can even decide to not even download certain portions of a file, or may choose to give higher priority to certain bits of file data based on how the file was broken down by the original seeder.

When we talk about the swarm structure of the 4th generation of peer to peer file sharing networks, we have to go no farther than the previous generations. The previous generations of peer to peer file sharing networks have mainly focused on perfecting the structure of the file sharing networks, while the 4th generation began its focus on the one request that has been asked for since the 2nd generation which is the ability to preview the download as it is happening. Since newer technology and faster internet connections have become available, the ability to live stream a video of virtually any size has now been available making it a priority to the file sharing networks.

Finally the out cry for a previewable download in the peer to peer file sharing industry. This is not the first time that previews have been available as it was actually introduced in clients like Ares back in the 3rd generation, but was not very efficient at the preview process as it had a habit of jumping from piece of data to another piece leaving a virtually indistinguishable preview especially on smaller files.

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