An update on Microsoft's foray into peer-assisted content distribution

Iria · Oct 25, 2005, 01:10 AM

Earlier this summer we learned about Microsoft's Avalanche project, a peer-assisted content distribution project that aims to improve on BitTorrent's supposed failings. When DCM Doll decided to invest almost $9 million in venture capital funding in BitTorrent, my interest was piqued: could content providers really get interested in peer-assisted delivery?

DCM Doll is surely counting on it, but I thought it would be interesting to get a status check from Microsoft on Avalanche. Mitch Goldberg, senior program manager at Microsoft Research Cambridge, told me that there are currently no announced plans to release technology based on Avalanche, although it remains a "research project that is being explored for its future potential."

One of Avalanche's more compelling features relates to how files are delivered. In the past, peer-assisted delivery has suffered from a kind of metaphorical "last mile" problem, wherein obtaining the very end of a file is considerably more difficult than obtaining the beginning, since so many users of applications such as BitTorrent stop seeding the minute they grab an entire file. Avalanche tries to side-step that problem.
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Read More / Source: Ars Technica

Oct 25, 2005, 01:10 AM	#1
Iria DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 7,275 Rep Power: 87	An update on Microsoft's foray into peer-assisted content distribution Earlier this summer we learned about Microsoft's Avalanche project, a peer-assisted content distribution project that aims to improve on BitTorrent's supposed failings. When DCM Doll decided to invest almost $9 million in venture capital funding in BitTorrent, my interest was piqued: could content providers really get interested in peer-assisted delivery? DCM Doll is surely counting on it, but I thought it would be interesting to get a status check from Microsoft on Avalanche. Mitch Goldberg, senior program manager at Microsoft Research Cambridge, told me that there are currently no announced plans to release technology based on Avalanche, although it remains a "research project that is being explored for its future potential." One of Avalanche's more compelling features relates to how files are delivered. In the past, peer-assisted delivery has suffered from a kind of metaphorical "last mile" problem, wherein obtaining the very end of a file is considerably more difficult than obtaining the beginning, since so many users of applications such as BitTorrent stop seeding the minute they grab an entire file. Avalanche tries to side-step that problem. ____________ Read More / Source: Ars Technica