How Bit Torrent Works?

A PRESENTATION BY

ADITYA MISRA (10ECE035)

RAJESH LIRIA (10ECE064)

Bit Torrent an introduction

Consumed about 40% of the world bandwidth in 2012 No requirement of large capacity server or expensive bandwidth

Works on a p2p network basis

Data is much more secure over such a p2p network The possibility of a server crash or timeout is exterminated. In a nut shell, bit torrent is a setup to extend the number of file sources exponentially.

AVAILABILITY
CLIENT HASH/HASH SUM HIT AND RUN LEECH LURKER SEED PEER P2P (PEER TO PEER) SWARM

Popular Terms

TRACKER
METADATA

Why Bit Torrent?

Used for replication of large amounts of static data. Scalability : the speed of data transfer or throughput increases with the increase of peers and seeds to a swarm. Efficient utilizes a large amount of available network bandwidth Tolerant to dropping peers Ability to verify data integrity (SHA-1 Hashes)

Minimise piece overlap among peers to allow each peer to exchange pieces with as many other peers as possible

File Splitting
The file to be distributed is split up in pieces and an SHA-1 hash is calculated for each piece.

Metadata File

A metadata file (commonly known as .torrent file) is distributed to all the peers in a swarm, using a different protocol.(Generally, http or ftp) The metadata contains

The SHA-1 hashes of all pieces (Secure Hash Algorithm) A mapping of the pieces to files A tracker reference URL of tracker Name Length of file

Tracker

The tracker is a central server keeping a list of all peers participating in the swarm A swarm is the set of peers that are participating in distributing the same files A peer joins a swarm by asking the tracker for a peer list and connects to those peers.

Graphic Visualization
The above visualization shows a set of swarm with the pieces they have. The node connected with an arrow is a new peer to the swarm requesting for the list of ip of its peers.

Graphic Visualization
The above visualization shows a set of swarm with the pieces they have. The node connected with an arrow is a new peer to the swarm requesting for the list of ip of its peers.

DHT distributed hash table

Works as a hash table with sha1-hashes as keys. The key is the info-hash, the hash of the metadata. It uniquely identifies a torrent.

The data is a peer list of the peers in the swarm.

Each node is assigned an ID

in the key space (160 bit numbers)

Nodes order themselves in a defined topography

Makes it possible to search for Ids by traversing the node topography

Bittorrent uses kademlia as DHT.

Kademlia Bootstrap

Each node bootstraps by looking for its own ID The search is done recursively until no closer nodes can be found The nodes passed on the way are stored in the routing table The routing table have more room for close nodes than distant nodes

Kademlia Routing Table

Each node knows much more about close nodes than distant nodes The key space each bucket represents is growing with the power of 2 with the distance Querying a node for a specific ID will on average halve the distance to the target ID each step

Visualization of Kademlia Bootsrap Routing

Node Bucket gives us the list of neighborhood peers. Farther you are on the Node ID bit, the closer you are to your neighbors.

Visualization of Kademlia Node ID

Each bit level represents a node bucket. Higher on the node bucket, more the no. of neighborhood peers.

Pieces and Sub-pieces

A piece is broken into sub-pieces typically 16KB in size. Until a piece is assembled, only download the sub-pieces of that piece only This policy lets pieces assemble quickly.

Piece overlap

Small overlap

Big overlap

Piece Selection

The order in which pieces are selected by different peers is critical for good performance If an inefficient policy is used, then peers may end up in a situation where each has all identical set of easily available pieces, and none of the missing ones. If the original seed is prematurely taken down, then the file cannot be completely downloaded!

Piece Selection Algorithms

Strict Priority

First priority (commonly in a sequential order, otherwise can be reconfigured to our own choice) General Rule (preset in all the torrent clients Bit Torrent, Torrent, Vuze, Transmission) Special Case, at the beginning Special Case for end of data transmission.

Rarest First

Random First Piece

Endgame Mode

Bit Torrent : Internal Mechanism

Built in Incentive mechanism

Choking Algorithm Optimistic Unchoking

Choking Algorithm

Choking is a temporary refusal to upload. It is one of BitTorrents most powerful idea to deal with free riders (those who only download but never upload). Tit-for-tat strategy is based on game-theoretic concepts. A good choking algorithm caps the number of simultaneous uploads for good TCP performance.

Avoids choking and unchoking too quickly, known as fibrillation).

Optimistic Unchoking

A BitTorrent peer has a single optimistic unchoke to which it uploads regardless of the current download rate from it. This peer rotates every 30s Reasons:

To discover currently unused connections are better than the ones being used To provide minimal service to new peers

Upload only mode

Transition from a peer to a seed. Once download is complete, a peer has no download rates to use for comparison nor has any need to use them. Upload to those with the best upload rate. This ensures that pieces get replicated faster, and new seeders are created fast.

 Optimization of Bit Torrent - Can

we further push the limits?
CAN A CENTRALLY SCHEDULED FILE DISTRIBUTION PROTOCOL GIVE AN ANSWER TO THE BIT TORRENT LAG ?

A centrally monitored and controlled uplink and downlink of data between two nodes may theoretically provide a larger throughput, but in real environment that has to deal with - non responsive nodes, an asymmetrical upload and download bandwidth; Bit Torrent might be the most efficient p2p sharing network in the entire course of file exchange protocols.

Summary and Queries.

Well go through a quick revision on what we learnt. You may ask any questions post summary. Thank you for your attention !