The Network Operator's Perspective on Peer-to-Peer: Business Threats or Opportunities?

This paper studies the impact of peer-to-peer (p2p) applications on network operators. P2p applications affect the way network resources are used, changing traffic behaviour at access, edge and peering levels. In particular, they make up overlay networks with topology decoupled from the underlying physical networks: a consequence is inefficiency and higher link loads at edge and peering levels. The growth of overlay applications is affecting the capability of operators to sustain their business: traffic grows without proportional additional revenues. Operators should not be allowed to block selectively p2p traffic or users, to not violate the “network neutrality” principle. However, operators may still use p2p traffic information without infringing privacy and neutrality principles. We highlight a possible approach for network operators to face these issues and to turn uncertainties caused by p2p applications into future opportunities.