P2P: A Definition of a Peer-to-Peer Network

Peer- 2 (to)-Peer is a term that typically refers to a file sharing network. It is a networking technology that normally uses a decentralized communication model. What is meant by this is that there isn’t any central server involved and all computers in the network act as both server and client. An example of a pure decentralized P2P network is the BitTorrent protocol where files are shared between all peers independent of any central server. The type of files that are shared can be audio, video, data etc. The big advantage of a decentralized P2P network is fault tolerance – if one peer disconnects from the network there are other computers that will have the same data available to share.