Weathering the Bittorrent Tracker outage

Bittorrent is facing a small crisis with the loss of Leaseweb for hosting Bittorrent trackers. The major issue with a Bittorrent tracker is that it consumes a very large amount of bandwidth to ensure that all the open peers and seeders for a particular torrent file are maintained and current.

Azureus has a distributed tracker system that helps it work without having a formal tracker to connect to, to grab a torrent file. This in many ways is similar to how the later versions of P2P protocols like eDonkey worked before the MPAA figured out there had to be a central way of connecting peers to other peers. The Azureus trackerless system though requires that other clients also use Azureus to connect using the distributed system.

However, a distributed tracker does exist, and if the major Bittorrent trackers are stopped on 01 December 2007, then the next step in how to keep the culture alive is to use a distributed tracking and searching system based on (N) number of smaller trackers. A distributed search system (where many programs can pull or screen scrape the smaller trackers and share that data via RSS Feeds) will also be needed to provide multiple interfaces into the various smaller trackers.

A distributed tracking system also exists outside of Azureus, named Tracker BT but it has been over a year since the program was updated. It does install very easily on a Linux system, and can be easily distributed across both a DSL and cable system (gather 20 of your best friends and have them install it) to provide composite bandwidth (that can be tuned by how much to consume to keep things in line and not grab the ire of your ISP) as well as providing a screen scrape able tracker system.

The other good thing about this is that by using multiple trackers over a very large ISP base means that it is going to be more difficult to take down an entire system of trackers where it is very easy to take down just one tracker.

The current problem with Bittorrent is the dependency on a centralized tracking system, and while there are ways around it, for the protocol to survive so that people can download Linux and other freeware or creative commons material, public domain material, and other items that are legal to share, the dependency is a dangerous precedent. Any system that has a central way of taking down systems means that people need to start looking at alternatives to that central point of failure.

While streaming media can also be ripped and downloaded or viewed, if Bittorrent is to survive as a protocol and as a major delivery distribution system, the need for distributed environments is much more important. It is also important to maintain a lower level of bandwidth usage so that the ISP’s will not feel threatened or otherwise need to shape the bandwidth requirements for Bittorrent or P2P systems.