Efficient content distribution for peer-to-peer overlays on mobile ad hoc networks

Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks existing on a MANET are a natural evolution since both are decentralized and have dynamic topologies. As MANETs grow in use due to the increasing popularity of wireless mesh and 4G networks, it is expected that P2P applications will remain as a popular means of obtaining files. Network coding has been shown as an efficient means of sharing large files in a P2P network. With network coding, all file blocks have the same relative importance. This paper presents an efficient content distribution scheme that uses network coding to share large files in a P2P overlay running on a MANET. Peers request file blocks from multiple server nodes and servers multicast blocks to multiple receivers, providing efficient multipoint-to-multipoint communication. Simulation results show that compared to other common download techniques, the proposed scheme performs very well, having lower download time and energy consumption. Also, more peers participate in uploading the file, resulting in greater fairness. (C) 2011 Cairo University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.