In this paper, we discuss the current situation with respect to simulation usage in P2P research, testing the available P2P simulators against a proposed set of requirements, and surveying over 280 papers to discover what simulators are already being used. We found that no simulator currently meets all our requirements, and that simulation results are generally reported in the literature in a fashion that precludes any reproduction of results. We hope that this paper will give rise to further discussion and knowledge sharing among those of the P2P and network simulation research communities, so that a simulator that meets the needs of rigorous P2P research can be developed.

This paper presents both a retrospective of the development of network interface architecture, and performance and conformance data from a range of contemporary devices sporting various performance enhancing technologies. The data shows that 10Gb/s networking is now possible without statefull offload and while consuming less than one CPU core on a contemporary commodity server.