Peer-to-peer computing: From applications to platform

In the last several years, we have made great efforts on prototype development and deployments of real systems about peer-to-peer computing. We have released many famous systems in CERNET of China, including: 1) a live streaming system based on P2P computing, named AnySee, in 2004; 2) a P2P VoD system, named GridCast, a P2P based E-Learning system, named APPLE, in 2005; 3) a P2P based gaming platform, named PKTown, and a P2P-based high performance computing platform, named P2HP, in 2006; 4) a P2P live streaming system for wireless environment, named MoSee, in 2007. All these deployed systems have attracted more attention on innovative P2P applications. In the last several years, there are about more than 100,000 users, which have enjoyed the services provided by these applications and we also have collected many data sets about users behaviors in different applications. Based on these logs from real systems, there is one finding: single platform, which includes many typical P2P applications, is a promising system for users, developers and researchers. For users, they can enjoy different services in one software, not many dazzling applications. For developers, they can deploy new P2P services quickly based on the functions and support by platform. For researchers, they can model the complex network and make statistic analysis and physical evolvement based on the traces provided by the platform. In the future, we will focus on P2P based platform, named Ripple, which is to construct a Reliable independent P2P layered engine with manageability to support services, including scientific research, streaming services, game services and etc.