Distributed systems and natural disasters: BitTorrent as a global witness

Zachary S. Bischof*, John S. Otto, Fabian E Bustamante

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

Peer-to-peer (P2P) systems represent some of the largest distributed systems in today's Internet. Among P2P systems, BitTorrent is the most popular, potentially accounting for 20 - 50% of P2P file-sharing traffic. In this paper, we argue that this popularity can be leveraged to monitor the impact of natural disasters and political unrest on the Internet. We focus our analysis on the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami and use a view from BitTorrent to show that it is possible to identify specific regions and network links where Internet usage and connectivity were most affected.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings of the Special Workshop on Internet and Disasters, SWID'11
DOIs
StatePublished - 2011
EventSpecial Workshop on Internet and Disasters, SWID'11 - Tokyo, Japan
Duration: Dec 6 2011Dec 9 2011

Publication series

NameProceedings of the Special Workshop on Internet and Disasters, SWID'11

Other

OtherSpecial Workshop on Internet and Disasters, SWID'11
Country/TerritoryJapan
CityTokyo
Period12/6/1112/9/11

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Computer Networks and Communications

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