 Chunked downloading: Are the chunks chosen randomly, or does it download from beginni
Are the chunks which will be downloaded chosen randomly, or does LimeWire download the file from beginning to end?
If the latter I'd suggest changing it in the following way:
As soon as you have 2 or more sources, you could download from one of them from the beginning, from the next you could begin the download after the first third of the file or from the second third of the file, determining randomly if you choose the first or second third.
That way preview would still work, and partial file sharing would allow some clients to feed off the same sources and then exchanging the chunks (so as to make it possible for them to get the complete file even in the case, that the uploader goes offline before one of them finished the download.)
If you have only one source, I think you should still download from beginning to end, so this applies only, when the download mesh contains other clients with partial files. Maybe it would even be possible to announce, which chunks one has instead of always requesting the range without knowing which is avaible.
1st, 2nd and 3rd third would have the advantage, that a client could always try to get data from certain parts of the file without needing prior information.
Or is there already another (better) mechanism in place? Or am I missing something? |