Mapping of file-sharing onto mobile environments: feasibility and performance of eDonkey with GPRS

Peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing has become a major application in the Internet with respect to traffic volume which is even surpassing Web usage. This characteristic makes P2P commercially attractive to network operators interested in increased traffic. In parallel, the demand for wireless services has caused wireless networks to grow enormously. We assume that P2P file-sharing will be mapped onto mobile environments by its users. This results in a mobile P2P file-sharing service, which we denote as mobile P2P. In this paper, we examine the feasibility of the eDonkey file-sharing service in GPRS networks, detect problems of the interaction between P2P and the mobile network, and find solutions to overcome them. Furthermore, this paper measures and analyzes the characteristics of mobile P2P and gives first empirical performance values. Summarizing, the goal is the analysis of feasibility for an Internet-based file-sharing application in a mobile network and to provide first measurements from two real-world networks.