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In Light of Skype disruption; not all P2P is the same

  • 20 August, 2007 18:36

<p>Skype’s Peer-to-Peer model suffers from flaws not present in other Peer-to-Peer models (so it is Skype-specific vulnerabilities that are exposed by its outage, rather than vulnerabilities to Peer-to-Peer in general).</p>
<p>SightSpeed uses Peer-to-Peer but do not suffer from this fatal flaw, since SightSpeed manages and handles all the core functionality. Standards based telephony protocols such as SIP (which SightSpeed uses) were designed from the outset to be fault tolerant.</p>
<p>Skype uses a different type of Peer-To-Peer network. Skype uses a system called SuperNodes. A SuperNode Peer-to-Peer system is one in which you rely on your customers rather than your own servers to handle the majority of your traffic. SuperNodes are just normal computers which get promoted by the Skype software to serve as the traffic cops for their entire network. In theory this is a good idea, but the problem happens if your network starts to destabilize. Skype, as a company, has no physical or programmatic control over the most vital piece of its product. Skype instead is at the mercy of and vulnerable to the people who unknowingly run the SuperNodes.</p>
<p>This of course exposes vulnerabilities to any business based on such a system — systems that, in effect, are not within the company’s control. Another flaw with SuperNode models concerns system recovery after a crash. Because Skype lost its SuperNodes in the initial crash, its network can only recover as fast as new SuperNodes can be identified.</p>
<p>Yes, there are several flavours of P2P, and all P2P shouldn’t be tarred with the same brush.</p>
<p>About SightSpeed</p>
<p>SightSpeed offers consumers and small businesses the most complete and compelling suite of personal video services over the Internet. The company’s flagship service is SightSpeed 6.0. SightSpeed 6.0’s award-winning free and premium services include best-in-class video and voice over IP (VVoIP), voice over IP (VoIP) and text messaging (IM). SightSpeed 6.0 also offers support for mobile personal video. SightSpeed’s suite of industry-leading video services offers unique opportunities for video-enabled advertising and e-commerce.</p>
<p>Contact:</p>
<p>Rick Nand
Email: rnand@sightspeed.com.au
Web: www.sightspeed.com.au</p>

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