Improving QoS for peer-to-peer applications through adaptation

The use of peer-to-peer networks has increased dramatically in recent years. As the power of home computers and Internet access speeds increase, we envisage that an increasingly diverse set of applications will seek to make use of the growing pool of resources available around the edge of the network. We suggest that existing peer-to-peer networks are unable to cater for the diverse demands of future applications. We discuss how adaptation may be used to improve the QoS of existing peer-to-peer networks and introduce an innovative network structure with inherent support for multiple levels of adaptation.