Essay Outline!

Topic: Peer-to-Peer networks; Arguments for and against.

Summary:
For my essay I have chosen the topic of Peer-to-Peer networks. I chose this topic because I am familiar with it and there is a lot of controversy on how people look at peer-to-peer networks and whether they are good or bad. Within the essay my argument will be that even though Peer-to-Peer networks create many problems, the advantages out way the disadvantages and the networks have a lot of potential in the future. When researching the topic I used the catalogue databases Griffith has access to and Google Scholar. I found Google Scholar much more effective then going through Griffith databases. Once I had some references I was able to begin to structure my essay.

Introduction-

• Introduce the topic of Peer-to-Peer networks; give a brief explanation on what they are. Outline the structure of the essay.

Body-

• History of Peer-to-Peer networks, explain how they work and how they have evolved over time. Give examples of major peer-to-peer networks.
• Outline the advantages of Peer-to-Peer networks. Describe the different areas in society that use peer-to-peer networks such as Bioinformatics, military, education, business, TV and telecommunications.
• Describe the problems of peer-to-peer networks; outline the disadvantages. This includes the spread of viruses, leeching, spamming, copyright infringement, illegal downloading and identity attacks. Use Napster as an example to describe the problem of illegal downloading and to outline legal controversy.

Conclusion-

• Conclude on the note that even though there are many problems with Peer-to-Peer networks, they are very useful and have significant potential.

Resources:

• Schoder, Detlef & Fischbach, Kai & Schmitt, Christian, 2005, Core Concepts in Peer-to-Peer Networking, Idea Group Inc, Germany.
• Khan, Javid I & Wierzbicki, Adam, 2007, Foundations of Peer to Peer Computing, Elsevier B.V, pp. 187 – 189.
• Engle, Marling & Khan, Javid I, 2006, Vulnerabilities of P2P Systems and a Critical Look at their Solutions, Internetworking and Media Communications Research Laboratories, Department of Computer Science, Kent State University.
• Theotok, S, 2004, A Survey of Peer-to-Peer Content Distribution Technologies, Athens University of Economics and Business, Athens.
• Rossenhovel, Carsten 2008, Peer to Peer Filters: Ready for the Internet Prime Time? Internet Evolution, http://www.internetevolution.com/document.asp?doc_id=148803&f_src=flfon