Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the network, forming a peer-to-peer network of nodes.[1] In addition, a personal area network (PAN) is also in nature a type of decentralized peer-to-peer network typically between two devices.[2]
Peers make a portion of their resources, such as processing power, disk storage, or network bandwidth, directly available to other network participants, without the need for central coordination by servers or stable hosts.[3] Peers are both suppliers and consumers of resources, in contrast to the traditional client–server model in which the consumption and supply of resources are divided.[4]
While P2P systems had previously been used in many application domains,[5] the architecture was popularized by the Internet file sharing system Napster, originally released in 1999.[6] P2P is used in many protocols such as BitTorrent file sharing over the Internet[7] and in personal networks like Miracast displaying and Bluetooth radio.[8] The concept has inspired new structures and philosophies in many areas of human interaction. In such social contexts, peer-to-peer as a meme refers to the egalitariansocial networking that has emerged throughout society, enabled by Internet technologies in general.
^Rüdiger Schollmeier, A Definition of Peer-to-Peer Networking for the Classification of Peer-to-Peer Architectures and Applications, Proceedings of the First International Conference on Peer-to-Peer Computing, IEEE (2002).