Company Releases Real World Data on File Sharing

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Date: July 16, 2004 6:17:42 PM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Company Releases Real World Data on File Sharing
Reply-To: dewayne () warpspeed com

[Note:  I posted a story on the CacheLogic story earlier.  This story 
gives more detailed information then anything else that I've seen.  
Here's a pointer to the press release of CacheLogic on the study: 
<http://www.cachelogic.com/news/pr040715.php>.  I haven't been able to 
find a copy of the study on-line.  If I do, I'll post a pointer to it.  
This item is worth reading, especially to see the traffic numbers.  P2P 
filesharing appears to be THE killer app for the NET.  DLH]

Company Releases Real World Data on File Sharing

If you want to find out what's happening, just connect to the net. 
That's what CacheLogic did: it measured P2P file sharing in six 
Internet hubs around the world.

by Alex Goldman
ISP-Planet  Managing Editor
[July 16, 2004] 
<http://www.isp-planet.com/research/2004/cachelogic_data.html>

Privacy advocates say P2P file sharing increases music sales and helps 
the industry gain exposure for new artists. The RIAA says that P2P file 
sharing is theft, occurs largely on college campuses where it harms 
networks built for education, and harms record companies.

CacheLogic says none of the above, only that P2P file sharing is 
growing as both legitimate and illegitimate use explode. The company 
points to the widespread availability of Red Hat Linux's Fedora product 
on BitTorrent as a legitimate use of P2P.

CacheLogic has real world data to back up its assertions. The company 
recently developed an application monitoring appliance, the Streamsight 
510 (see Examining Layer Seven ), and deployed it in six POPs around 
the world to measure the extent of P2P traffic in America, Europe, and 
Asia.

Between January and June of 2004, the products saw KaZaA (which the 
company calls Fast Track) replaced by BitTorrent as the world's most 
popular P2P app.

The data also says that over the last mile, P2P traffic is 80 percent 
or more of all traffic. The company notes that for systems designed to 
be asymmetrical (as in most consumer broadband offerings today) the 
fact that P2P traffic is symmetrical (i.e., P2P users upload as much as 
they download) causes extra strain on the last mile portion of the 
ISP's network architecture.

P2P use is widespread, the company's report notes. "In a 30 day period, 
a single unit of CacheLogic equipment observed P2P accesses from 3.5 
million unique IP addresses."

ISPs that operate on the assumption that a few bandwidth hogs cause 
problems for everyone will be disillusioned if they obtain real data on 
their network, the company warns.

Rather than fight P2P technology, the company would, of course, prefer 
that ISPs adopt its Cachepliance system which delivers a more efficient 
P2P architecture (see Building a Bettter P2P Delivery System).

Unfortunately, as we noted in our article on the Cachepliance system, 
given the legal assault on all forms of file transfer undertaken by the 
RIAA, the legality of any solution that gathers data on or assists the 
operation of P2P file sharing may be subject to the whim of Congress 
and other lawmakers.

The Streamsight 510 is not illegal, because it does not aid P2P 
functionality, and it does not trace any individual's activity.

You may wish to drop this little device into your network to find out 
what's really going on. In its report for June, 2004, CacheLogic says 
that its U.S.-based equipment found that about two-thirds of all 
traffic was P2P (with about 11 percent HTTP, and 22 percent "other" 
including e-mail and FTP).


Archives at: <http://Wireless.Com/Dewayne-Net>
Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com>

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