Non-Remuneration: Benefits and Pricing in P2P Incentive Mechanisms

Incentive mechanisms protect P2P networks from free-riders. Pricing controls the cost and benefit of cooperation, e.g., the granted upload-download ratio. Some file-sharing networks enforce cooperation by credit-based mechanisms. The locally-stored credit value rates the willingness to grant service to a certain peer. As an incentive, future requests of cooperative peers are accelerated. We examine the correlation of available bandwidth, received data rate, credits, and pricing. In our results we identify the limitations of this incentive mechanism, especially when selfish nodes deny cooperation to maximize their benefit.