Content delivery network

[dimitrius101]

Hi all

Is it possible to use BitComet P2P as a Content Delivery Network for a startup website that can't afford the hugely expensive pricing structures of the Akamai and Limelight networks of this world? if yes, then I would really appreciate some advice on how to go about integrating this functionality with my website so that it is a seemless use for my users.

Thank you

Dimitrius

[kluelos]

It is not, in any serious sense and despite several attempts.

P2P in general and bittorrent in particular, were designed to fit the world as it exists -- or rather, existed in 2004 or thereabouts. It depends upon having many, many people simultaneously interested in the same content. This is where P2P gets its speed.

Any situation where this is not applicable, is not suitable for P2P.

The idea is that you download a piece while I download a different piece, then we each share our pieces with each other (that's the peer-to-peer part of things). Now think big. You get most of your pieces, not from a single monolithic source, but from other peers like yourself. When you have all the pieces, you become a source yourself, and continue to upload to others for a while.

This is not to say that people haven't tried. BitComet Lite was just such an attempt. There was a similar product from µtorrent, since abandoned.

IF you had thousands of users all interested in your material all at the same time, distribution via P2P might be feasible. But if you had thousands of interested users, then you could afford Akamai in the first place, n'cest pas?

[dimitrius101]

Thank you for the answer Kluelos. I appreciate it.

So I'm very stuck then. I cannot afford Akamai, as my revenue generation is via advertising and is not at that level. If I cannot adopt a P2P model, then I am stuck. :(

[kluelos]

Well, not necessarily. It does depend on the content that you need delivered -- how much, how frequently and how soon and under what circumstances. There's still a lot of alternatives worth considering.

[dimitrius101]

I'm delivering 10 minute flash video clips at standard definition quality, but want to move to high definition quality. Average download bandwidth would jump more than 10 times then. I'd expect at least 100 terabytes per month upload and 100tb download.

[kluelos]

Have you looked at something like MegaShare as an alternative?

[dimitrius101]

I haven't looked at MegaShare, but I will now. Thanks for the info.