Gnutella2 Specifications

An anonymous reader writes "After lots of heated debate regarding Gnutella2, (first story and more recent story), the specifications have finally been released. There is a mirror here. Let the debates begin."

Comments

The "About" information

[Berylium]

For those of you who don't want to pop over to the site. Or if it get's slashdotted (which would be odd).

What is Gnutella2?
Gnutella2 is a modern and efficient peer-to-peer network standard and architecture designed to provide a solid foundation for distributed global services such as person to person communication, data location and transfer and other future services.

Why is it needed?
Peer to peer technologies have become mainstream over recent years, and there are already a significant number of P2P networks in various stages of development and operation.

How does yet another network help?
Gnutella2 is unique amongst the currently operating peer to peer networks in several important ways:
* Many of the most successful networks are "closed", owned by a single entity with restrictions or fees constituting a barrier to participation. This is not a viable model for an open, general purpose network. Gnutella2 is an open architecture where anyone is welcome to participate and contribute. The network has been designed to allow such diversity without the need for messy hacks or compromises in integrity.
* The majority of networks are devoted to a single purpose, often the sharing of files. This is certainly a popular application for peer to peer technology, but it is by no means the only application. Gnutella2 is designed as a general purpose network which can be used as a solid foundation for any number of different peer to peer applications - vanilla file sharing, communications tools or other ideas which are yet to be conceived.
* Some peer to peer networks have been developed with similar general purpose goals, however they have been unable to compete in the most popular application of the day, which is file sharing. For a general purpose network to succeed, it must be able to compete with purpose-specific networks in the most popular purpose. Gnutella2 is not only able to compete with the current popular file sharing specific networks, it outperforms them.

What About "Old Gnutella"?
The original "Gnutella" was created several years ago as a very simple, single vendor file-sharing specific network. Its simplicity made it a popular platform for file sharing application developers; however this simplicity also critically limited its effectiveness. As a result, competing file-sharing specific networks slowly but surely took over as the tools of choice as Gnutella users became frustrated with poor performance and turned elsewhere.
The original Gnutella[1] network was designed for a very limited purpose and, despite many changes over the years, remains limited today. Efforts to make it a better file sharing network continue with mixed success.
Gnutella2 shares the "Gnutella" name, striving to create the network that Gnutella should have been from the beginning. It shares the adopted ideals of openness and cooperation, but offers a fresh start that was sorely needed. The crippling limitations of the old network have been left behind and replaced with an entirely new network architecture ready to grow and develop through the creative efforts of many.

What is the Scope of Gnutella2?
The single name "Gnutella2" really refers to two separate components: Gnutella2 the Standard and Gnutella2 the Network.
The Gnutella2 Network is perhaps the most easily recognised component. It is a new high-performance peer to peer network architecture upon which a variety of distributed applications can be built, such as file sharing applications, communication tools, etc.
The Gnutella2 Standard is a set of requirements for building applications which operate on the Gnutella2 network in different capacities. It specifies the minimum compliance level required to be recognised as a Gnutella2-compatible application. Compliance with a Gnutella2 Standard ensures participating applications provide a minimum acceptable level of service to other network participants.

Re:The "About" information

[Adam Fisk]

Gnutella2, or "Mike's Protocol," has some interesting properties. It has nothing whatsoever to do with Gnutella, however. It's a separate protocol that is bootstrapping off of the Gnutella name to do things like get on Slashdot, and everyone here is falling for it.

Characterizations of Gnutella as a simple, old protocol reflect a woeful ignorance of the many innovations that have emerged from Gnutella. In fact, much of Mike's Protocol calls "Gnutella 2" are innovations developed on Gnutella itself. These aren't simply close copies -- the protocols he cites are, in fact, Gnutella protocols. There are many more innovations happening on Gnutella as we speak, and the highjacking of the Gnutella name by Mike has weakened the fabric of an otherwise strong and open development community.

We should all support open networks by supporting Gnutella. Gnutella2 offers interesting alternatives, but is no better than the work currently occurring on Gnutella. What's more, few if any Gnutella developers will ever support Gnutella2 because of the divisive way that it was introduced, permanently fracturing the Gnutella community, with almost all of the Gnutella community still working on Gnutella because they were never told of the so-called Gnutella2 until it was slashdotted, much as we're seeing today.

If you support open protocols, support the original Gnutella. Gnutella2 does not solve any problems not currently solved by the original Gnutella clients. It simply creates division.

Don't be fooled! It's not the 'official' Gnutella2

[Opiuman]

It is "Mike's Protocol", as mentioned at the interview linked to from the previous post.