P2P-Next

About P2P-Next

P2P-Next was a four-year collaborative research project, not a commercial startup, that ran from 2008 to 2012. It was funded by the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) to address the challenges of distributing high-quality video and multimedia content to large audiences over the internet. The initiative brought together a consortium of 21 high-profile partners from 12 different countries, including research institutions, technology companies, media organizations like the BBC, and major European players.

The core objective of the P2P-Next project was to develop a next-generation, open-source peer-to-peer (P2P) content delivery platform. This was a response to the limitations of the traditional client-server internet infrastructure, which is ill-suited for the simultaneous transmission of live events to millions of users, a scenario that can easily lead to network congestion. The project aimed to create a system that was scalable, efficient, and user-centric, shifting from a linear push model of content delivery to a paradigm where users had more control. The goal was to lower the substantial costs associated with content distribution while enhancing streaming performance and quality for end-users across various devices, including PCs, mobile devices, and set-top boxes.

A significant achievement of the project was the creation of the NextShareTV platform. This platform utilized and expanded upon the proven BitTorrent protocol to enable live streaming to thousands of viewers using roughly the same amount of bandwidth required for a single user. The software developed was designed to be open source, encouraging the development of new business models for content delivery. By its conclusion, P2P-Next successfully demonstrated the viability of using P2P technology for transforming digital content delivery, making significant contributions to the field for both academic and commercial sectors.