Bandwidth could be a new global 'currency'
- 17:47 30 August 2007 by Tom Simonite
Bandwidth could become a form of "currency" with users paying for downloaded files by uploading more data themselves, researchers say.
The goal is to ensure that future content, particularly video, is distributed as fairly and efficiently as possible.
Computer scientists have have used the idea to develop peer-to-peer file-sharing software, which they are asking computer users to try out. They hope eventually to create a "global marketplace in bandwidth", where people can trade it as a commodity.
The researchers' free software, called Tribler, uses a modified version of the popular BitTorrent file-trading algorithm.
This requires people downloading a large file from a single source to pass segments of it on to other downloaders, dividing up bandwidth usage and speeding downloads. Unlike BitTorrent, however, Tribler asks users to "pay" for the bandwidth they consume by offering up more of their own in return.
This is designed to tackle a common problem with peer-to-peer networks known as "leeching" or "free-riding", where users download lots of data but refuse to upload it, in order to minimise their personal bandwidth usage.
Use of Tribler is governed by a market in bandwidth, analogous to a market for physical commodities like oil. Users earn credit by uploading and can then spend it by downloading. Its creators say this ought to ensure that no one leeches, and that content is made available quickly.
As part of my subscription to New Scientist, I get a free online subscription too, which I choose to manage via their RSS feeds and Google Reader. One of the articles I saw today was an interesting modification to the BitTorrent protocol that has come out of Harvard, and is encapsulated in the Tribler program.
The modification itself is quite interesting; taking the BitTorrent etiquette of giving back to the swarm what you download (i.e., maintaining a share ratio of 1.0), and the practice of blocking leechers (who have a share ratio far below 1.0) carried out by some private torrents, the Tribler guys have created a bandwidth credit system. You actually trade bandwidth: uploading "earns" your bandwidth, and downloading is classed as "spending" your bandwidth. Thus, if you don't upload, you can't download. The creators hope that content can be distributed as fairly and efficiently as possible (cf. the ISPs' current issues with high-bandwidth applications such as video).
Not only this, but looking briefly into the client program's features, it has collided head-on with the socially-networked world of "Web 2.0". A recommendation system based on a "collaborative filtering algorithm" highlights torrents that you are likely to enjoy. It also provides you with a one-stop shop for everything required to use your torrents - no more hunting the 'net for the right codec, Tribler has got it covered.
Sounds good, but I'm not sure I'm ready to switch from Azureus yet. Not on my PC, at least, which has enough power to cope with Azureus' memory-hogging antics, but Tribler might be worth investigating on my now-rather-underpowered G4 iBook...
From:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12565
http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/alastairsmith/entry/bandwidth_trading_via