Microsoft takes P2P mainstream

Vista to embrace peer to peer technology

Microsoft will ship a technology as part of Windows Vista that aims to broaden the appeal of peer to peer networking technology.

"P2P is a game-changer for application development," Microsoft product unit manager Sandeep Singhal said in a session at the Microsoft Professional Developer Conference in Los Angeles.

The technology has been available for a while, but has not taken off because it is too difficult to develop the applications and faces security issues.

P2P could especially benefit applications for mobile devices, where limited bandwidth is more of a concern, according to Singhal. 

The technology is best known for its use in file-sharing applications, but is also applied in content delivery applications including streaming radio and video services.
To allow third-party developers to incorporate the technology into their software, Microsoft will build in support in Vista. The technology is part of the Windows Communication Foundation Platform, formerly known as Indigo. 

"The key is that we getting a very balanced, high performance way of distributed messaging without burdening the person who is sending the data, " said Singhal.

Vista uses the P2P capabilities for a feature called 'People Near Me' that allows computers on the same network to connect.

Jim Alchin, group vice president for platforms at Microsoft, demonstrated the feature during a keynote presentation at the conference, showing how two computers could edit a single presentation.