Modeling resource constrained BitTorrent proxies for energy efficient mobile content sharing

Abstract

In this paper we present a solution that makes BitTorrent content transfer for mobile device more energy efficient. The main idea of the research is that instead of downloading the content via BitTorrent directly to the mobile phone, an intermediate proxy is used which sends the data to the phone in high speed bursts. This results in smaller energy footprint compared with regular BitTorrent data transfer. Furthermore, we focus on how the proxy can be hosted on memory limited broadband routers which are available in almost every home. We define an analytical model which can be used to analyze the memory allocation strategies of the proxy peers and predict how proxy peers influence the P2P community performance. We verify our model via simulations. We also present measurement results with real life torrents using our prototype system running on home routers and Symbian based mobile phones.