Peer Networking Scenarios

The Peer-to-Peer Infrastructure offers you many options for developing peer-to-peer networking applications. This topic contains information about the following peer-to-peer networking scenarios:

• Collaborative applications
• Instant messaging or chat applications
• Content distribution applications

Collaborative Applications

You can use the Peer-to-Peer Infrastructure to create collaborative applications for users to interactively share ideas with each other whether they are in the same conference room or across the Internet. For example, you can create a shared whiteboard-like application.

Instant Messaging or Chat Applications

Instant messaging and chat applications that use central servers can be updated to use the Peer-to-Peer Infrastructure. For example, a chat application can use the Peer-to-Peer Infrastructure as an alternative to a centralized server. The Peer-to-Peer Infrastructure improves scalability, and allows users to participate in chat and messaging activities without a server.

Content Distribution Applications

You can use the Peer-to-Peer Infrastructure as a distribution mechanism for content. For example, you can distribute a newsletter to peers who subscribe to a service. Because data in the Peer-to-Peer Infrastructure is synchronized, subscribers receive the newsletter even when the publisher is not online.