Modeling BitTorrent choking algorithm using game theory

Although BitTorrent is gaining popularity as one of the most successful protocols used for file sharing, it suffers from the problem of free riding. In this article, we propose a game theory model to mitigate the effect of free riders in a BitTorrent environment. Our proposal models both the optimistic as well as the regular unchoking algorithms. To evaluate the performance of our proposed game theory model, we conducted extensive evaluation experiments and compared the original BitTorrent choking algorithm with our proposed model. Results indicate that our proposed model performs better in terms of fairness, robustness, and agility. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.