Performance Analysis of P2P Networks with Light Communication Links: The Static Managed Case

Abstract

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks have emerged as potential solutions to issues that cause inefficient download times in networks because they can use the resources in the entire network, allowing nodes to act both as servers and clients simultaneously. Commonly, P2P networks use radio frequency (RF) to communicate among nodes; however, light fidelity (LiFi) has been developed as an alternative to wireless fidelity (WiFi) systems due to some advantages such as great speed (up to 1 Tbps), a high level of security, and less saturated channels in unlicensed bandwidth, making it ideal for RF-sensitive environments and networks with static nodes, since LiFi systems require a high node alignment level to enable efficient communication. In this article, we develop a mathematical model that captures the dynamics of LiFi- and WiFi-based P2P networks in static environments to allow for adequate LiFi links in managed conditions where the content is distributed from a single source node to the rest of the peers through different architectures. For the services considered in our work, we compare the performance of P2P networks using WiFi 7 and LiFi 2.0 technologies to provide clear quantitative numerical results that allow for adequate selection between these systems. Also, we validate our mathematical results through extensive simulations.