Enter Avalanche: P2P filesharing from Microsoft

Found on The Register on Thursday, 16 June 2005
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Researchers at Microsoft's computer science lab in Cambridge have developed a peer-to-peer filesharing system that they say overcomes the scheduling problems associated with existing distribution protocols such as Bit Torrent.

The researchers claim download times are between 20-30 per cent faster, using their network coding approach, than on systems that only code at the server, and between 200 and 300 per cent faster than distributing un-encoded information.

Naturally, Microsoft is very keen to stress that this technology should be used for distributing legitimate content. It even put that in italics in the press material.

The basic principle of the system, dubbed Avalanche, is pretty much the same as BitTorrent. Certainly the problem it solves is: a large file needs to be distributed to many people. One server does not have the bandwidth to deal with all that traffic, so you need to find another way of getting the file to everyone who needs it.

20-30% faster download? When Bittorrent has enough sources, it will saturate a line; call me blind, but I can't see how MS could increase the maximum speed of a line by 20-30%. Anyway, I think this is just another PR bubble. Much ado about nothing. Perhaps MS really thinks Avalanche will beat Bittorrent, who knows. Just like wma has beaten mp3. Programs aren't just faster because MS made them. For example, Samba is considerably faster than Windows' file and printer services (which is even tied into the OS) on the same hardware.