Peer-to-peer workload characterization: techniques and open issues

The popularity of peer-to-peer file sharing networks has attracted multiple interests even in the research community. In this paper, we focus on workload characterization of file-sharing systems that should be at the basis of performance evaluation and investigations for possible improvements. The contribution of this paper is twofold: first, we provide a classification of related studies on file-sharing workload by distinguishing the main considered information and the mechanisms and tools that have been used for data collection. We also point out open issues in file-sharing workload characterization and suggest novel approaches to workload studies.