Traffic Localization for P2P-Applications: The ALTO Approach

Today, most P2P applications do not consider locality on the underlying network topology when choosing their neighbors on the P2P routing layer. As a result, participating peers may experience long delays and peers' ISPs suffer from a large amount of (costly) inter-ISP traffic. One potential solution to mitigate these problems is to have ISPs or third parties convey information regarding the underlying network topology to P2P-clients through a dedicated service. Following this approach, the IETF has recently formed an Application Layer Traffic Optimization (ALTO) working group for standardizing a protocol to enable P2P applications to obtain information regarding network layer topology. This paper comprises the problem space for such an ALTO approach, taking into account recent developments in the IETF ALTO Working Group. In particular, we will describe requirements for an ALTO protocol identified in the IETF, concrete protocols which have been proposed so far, and the overall challenges. In addition, we will discuss related issues such as privacy considerations, the relationship of an ALTO service with existing caching solutions, discovery mechanisms for an ALTO service, and security considerations.