from
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
peer-to-peer
<networking> 1. The kind of communication found in a system
using layered {protocols}. Each software or hardware
component can be considered to communicate only with its
{peer} in the same layer via the connection provided by the
lower layers.
(1994-12-14)
2. A {file sharing} system like {BitTorrent}, {Gnutella} or
{Kazaa} where computers that download data also serve that
data to other downloaders. This increases the total bandwidth
available in proportion to the number of users and so reduces
download time. This contrasts with {client-server} where all
clients download the data from a single server (or {mirror}),
sharing its fixed bandwidth.
(2007-03-28)