An Abstract Internet Topology Model for Simulating Peer-to-Peer Content Distribution

In recent years, many researchers have run simulations of the Internet. The Internet's inherent heterogeneity and constantly changing nature make it difficult to construct a realistic, yet computationally feasible model. In the construction of any model, one must take into consideration flexibility, accuracy, required resources, execution time, and realism. In this paper, we discuss the methodology and creation of a model used to simulate Internet content distribution, and the rationale used behind its design. In particular, we are interested in modeling the in-home consumer broadband Internet, while preserving geographical market relationships. In our performance study, our simulations experience tremendous speedups, and require a fraction of the memory of other models, without sacrificing the accuracy of our findings. Specifically, our piece-level model achieves the accuracy of a packet-level model, while requiring the processing of 40 times fewer events.