Introduction to Windows Peer-to-Peer Networking

Published: January 1, 2003=datePipe> | Updated: July 30, 2004
Abstract

This article provides an overview of peer-to-peer networking, including a description of peer-to-peer networking scenarios. This paper also describe the goals of Microsoft® Windows® Peer-to-Peer Networking and how it works, including detailed descriptions of IPv6 and NAT traversal, peer discovery and name resolution, graphing, grouping, replicated storage, and searching.

Acknowledgements

Joseph Davies, Technical Writer, Microsoft Corporation

Todd Manion, Program Manager, Microsoft Corporation

Ravi Rao, Program Manager, Microsoft Corporation

John Miller, Development Lead, Microsoft Corporation

Xiaohai Zhang, Development Lead, Microsoft Corporation

On This Page

Peer-to-Peer Networking Overview
Windows Peer-to-Peer Networking
How Windows Peer-to-Peer Networking Works
Summary
Related Links

Peer-to-Peer Networking Overview

Peer-to-peer networking is the utilization of the relatively powerful computers (personal computers) that exist at the edge of the Internet for more than just client-based computing tasks. The modern PC has a very fast processor, vast memory, and a large hard disk, none of which are being fully utilized when performing common computing tasks such as e-mail and Web browsing. The modern PC can easily act as both a client and server (a peer) for many types of applications.

The typical computing model for many applications is a client/server model. A server computer typically has vast resources and responds to requests for resources and data from client computers. Client computers initiate requests for resources or data from server computers. A good example of the client/server model of computing is Web browsing. Web servers _disibledevent=listItem> Improved Internet technologies



Real-Time Communications (RTC)

For RTC, peer-to-peer networking enables serverless instant messaging and real-time matchmaking and game play.

Serverless Instant Messaging

RTC exists today. Computer users can chat and have voice or video conversations with their peers today. However, many of the existing programs and their communications protocols rely on servers to function. If you are participating in an ad-hoc wireless network or are a part of an isolated network, you are unable to use these RTC facilities. Peer-to-peer technology allows the extension of RTC technologies to these additional networking environments.

Real-time Matchmaking and Game Play

Similar to RTC, real-time game play exists today. There are many Web-based game sites that cater to the gaming community via the Internet. They offer the ability to find other gamers with similar erests and play a game together. The problem is that the game sites exist only on the Internet and are geared toward the avid gamer who want to play against the best gamers in the world. These sites track and provide the statistics to help in the process. However, these sites do not allow a gamer to up an ad-hoc game among friends in a variety of networking environments. Peer-to-peer networking can provide this capability.

Collaboration

For collaboration, peer-to-peer networking allows the sharing of a workspace, files, and experiences.

Project Workspaces Solving a Goal

Shared workspace applications allow for the creation of ad-hoc workgroups and then allow the workgroup owners to populate the shared workspace with the tools and content that will allow the group to solve a problem. This could message boards, productivity tools, and files.

Sharing Your Files with Other People

A sub of project workspace sharing is the ability to share files. Although this ability exists today with the current version of Windows, it can be enhanced through peer-to-peer networking to make file content available in an easy and friendly way. Allowing easy access to the incredible wealth of content at the edge of the Internet or in ad-hoc computing environments increases the value of network computing.

Sharing Your Experiences

With wireless connectivity becoming more prevalent, peer-to-peer networking allows you to be online in a group of peers and to be able to share your experiences (such as a sun, a rock concert, or a vacation cruise) while they are occurring.

Content Distribution

Peer-to-peer networking allows the distribution of text, audio, and video and software product updates.

Text Messages

Peer-to-peer networking can allow for the dissemination of text-based information in the form of files or messages to a large group of users. An example is a s list.

Audio and Video

Peer-to-peer networking can also allow for the dissemination of audio or video information to a large group of users, such as a large concert or company meeting. To distribute the content today, you must configure high-capacity servers to collect and distribute the load to hundreds or thousands of users. With peer-to-peer networking, only a handful of peers would actually get their content from the centralized servers. These peers would flood this information out to a few more people who send it to others, and so on. The load of distributing the content is distributed to the peers in the cloud. A peer that wants to receive the content would find the closest distributing peer and get the content from them.

Distribution of Product Updates

Peer-to-peer networking can also provide an efficient mechanism to distribute software such as product updates (security updates and service packs). A peer that has a connection to a software distribution server can obtain the product update and propagate it to the other members of its group.

Distributed Processing

Peer-to-peer networking allows computing tasks to be distributed and processor resources to be aggregated.

Division and Distribution of a Task

A large computing task can first be divided o separate smaller computing tasks well suited to the computing resources of a peer. A peer could do the dividing of the large computing task. Then, peer-to-peer networking can distribute the individual tasks to the separate peers in the group. Each peer performs its computing task and reports its result back to a centralized accumulation po.

Aggregation of Computer Resources

Another way to utilize peer-to-peer networking for distributed processing is to run programs on each peer that run during idle processor times and are part of a larger computing task that is coordinated by a central server. By aggregating the processors of multiple computers, peer-to-peer networking can turn a group of peer computers o a large parallel processor for large computing tasks.

Improved Internet Technologies

Peer-to-peer networking can also provide an improved utilization of the Internet and support Internet technologies. Historically, the Internet was designed so that network peers can have end-to-end connectivity. The modern-day Internet, however, more closely resembles a client/server environment where communication in many s is not end-to-end due to the prevalence of Network Address Translators (NATs).

This to the original purpose of the Internet will enable the creation of a wave of applications for personal communication and group productivity.