Diffusion Models for Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Media Distribution: On the Impact of Decentralized, Constrained Supply

Authors:
Kartik Hosanagar;Peng Han;Yong Tan
Affiliations:
Operations and Information Management, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104;aQuantive, Inc. (Microsoft), Seattle, Washington 98104;Michael G. Foster School of Business, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195
Venue:
Information Systems Research
Year:
2010

Citing 9
Cited 0

Stochastic Spatial Models

SIAM Review
Incentives for sharing in peer-to-peer networks

Proceedings of the 3rd ACM conference on Electronic Commerce
An epidemic model for information diffusion in MANETs

MSWiM '02 Proceedings of the 5th ACM international workshop on Modeling analysis and simulation of wireless and mobile systems
The Case for Cooperative Networking

IPTPS '01 Revised Papers from the First International Workshop on Peer-to-Peer Systems
Managing Demand and Sales Dynamics in New Product Diffusion Under Supply Constraint

Management Science
Diffusion of Innovations Under Supply Constraints

Operations Research
An Empirical Analysis of Network Externalities in Peer-to-Peer Music-Sharing Networks

Information Systems Research
A Pricing Mechanism for Digital Content Distribution Over Computer Networks

Journal of Management Information Systems
P2P commercial digital content exchange

Electronic Commerce Research and Applications

Quantified Score

Hi-index	0.00

Visualization

Abstract

In peer-to-peer (P2P) media distribution, users obtain content from other users who already have it. This form of decentralized product distribution demonstrates several unique features. Only a small fraction of users in the network are queried when a potential adopter seeks a file, and many of these users might even free-ride, i.e., not distribute the content to others. As a result, generated demand might not always be fulfilled immediately. We present mixing models for product diffusion in P2P networks that capture decentralized product distribution by current adopters, incomplete demand fulfillment and other unique aspects of P2P product diffusion. The models serve to demonstrate the important role that P2P search process and distribution referrals---payments made to users that distribute files---play in efficient P2P media distribution. We demonstrate the ability of our diffusion models to derive normative insights for P2P media distributors by studying the effectiveness of distribution referrals in speeding product diffusion and determining optimal referral policies for fully decentralized and hierarchical P2P networks.