On Analyzing Free-Riding Behavior in BitTorrent Communities

BitTorrent is undoubtedly the most popular P2P file sharing systems in existence that has been able to attract millions of users. BitTorrent depends on global components for file search, engages a moderator system to guarantee the data integrity of file, and uses an exchange mechanism for file sharing in order to discourage users from free-riding. We conduct one of the largest measurement and analysis of 4 BitTorrent communities in 2 different time periods to understand free-riding behavior. Although it is well-known that BitTorrent is exposed to free-riders for optimistic unchoking, this paper demonstrates that sharing communities are easily cheated by free-riders and are particularly appealing to them. We have observed that the proportion of seeders are consistently higher across BitTorrent communities, thereby encouraging free-riding. Contrary to the popular belief, our analysis reveals that free-riders does not deteriorates the system performance. We also report some unusual peer behaviors existing in BitTorrent communities.

[1]  Miao Wang,et al.  A reputation based incentive mechanism for selfish BitTorrent system , 2013, 2013 IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM).

[2]  Jie Wu,et al.  Free-Riding on BitTorrent-Like Peer-to-Peer File Sharing Systems: Modeling Analysis and Improvement , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems.

[3]  Umar Saif,et al.  BitTorrent for the less privileged , 2011, HotNets-X.

[4]  Keith W. Ross,et al.  Understanding and Improving Ratio Incentives in Private Communities , 2010, 2010 IEEE 30th International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems.

[5]  Kwok-Tung Lo,et al.  An analysis of user behavior in a private BitTorrent community , 2014, Int. J. Commun. Syst..

[6]  R. Srikant,et al.  Modeling and performance analysis of BitTorrent-like peer-to-peer networks , 2004, SIGCOMM '04.

[7]  Putra Sumari,et al.  A Survey of Fairness Mechanism in BitTorrent's Peer Selection Protocol , 2014 .

[8]  Michael Sirivianos,et al.  Free-riding in BitTorrent Networks with the Large View Exploit , 2007, IPTPS.

[9]  Özgür Ulusoy,et al.  Free Riding in Peer-to-Peer Networks , 2009, IEEE Internet Computing.

[10]  网行者.  最“变态”的下载：BitTorrent , 2003 .

[11]  Mohammed Onimisi Yahaya.  A mathematical framework for analyzing incentives in peer-to-peer networks , 2014 .

[12]  Mustaque Ahamad,et al.  Incentives in BitTorrent induce free riding , 2005, P2PECON '05.

[13]  Stefan Schmid,et al.  Free Riding in BitTorrent is Cheap , 2006, HotNets.

[14]  Chih-Lin Hu,et al.  Downloading trace study for BitTorrent P2P performance measurement and analysis , 2012, Peer Peer Netw. Appl..

[15]  B. Cohen,et al.  Incentives Build Robustness in Bit-Torrent , 2003 .

[16]  Eytan Adar,et al.  Free Riding on Gnutella , 2000, First Monday.