An enhanced parallel downloading algorithm for BT

BitTorrent (or BT) is a P2P based popular and convenient parallel downloading software tool. In this paper, we study the downloading mechanism of BitTorrent, point out some of its limitations, and propose an algorithm to improve its performance. Two major limitations of BitTorrent are, first its downloading speed is slow at the beginning of a downloading or when there is only a few clients. Second, current algorithms cannot achieve the best<br />parallel downloading degree as the selection of sub-pieces is random, and a file may not be downloaded when the file provider leaves the network unexpectedly. In this paper we address these problems by using neighbours in P2P networks to resolve the redundant copies and to optimise the download speed. Our preliminary experiments show that the proposed enhancement algorithm works well.<br />