ABSTRACT

The invention of digital media like CDs and audio DVDs might have made storage simpler but the distribution network hardly changed. Peer-to-peer worked on the model that the end users’ own computers were part of the distribution network, hence the term ‘peer’. Using the aforementioned analogy of distribution, the platform would provide the equivalent of having mini distribution centres capable of cloning copies of the records. To begin with, the ‘bread and butter’ of content delivery network (CDN) usage will always be storage and delivery and these are calculated very easily. It is difficult to assess which type of CDN is superior but Akamai may argue that the distributed point of presence CDN is superior when it comes to a live streaming media event watched by a high number of end users. Napster was the precursor to an even more famous, or rather infamous client that was exploited to share or deliver media files: BitTorrent.