Local Peer Discovery

The Local Peer Discovery protocol, specified as BEP-14,[1] is an extension to the BitTorrent file-distribution system. It is designed to support the discovery of local BitTorrent peers, aiming to minimize the traffic through the Internet service provider's (ISP) channel and maximize use of higher-bandwidth local area networks (LANs).

Local Peer Discovery is implemented[2] with HTTP-like messages on User Datagram Protocol (UDP) multicast group 239.192.152.143:6771 (IPv4) or ff15::efc0:988f (IPv6)[1] which are administratively scoped multicast addresses. Since implementation is simple, Local Peer Discovery is implemented in several clients (μTorrent,[3] BitTorrent/Mainline,[4] MonoTorrent,[5] libtorrent[6] and its derivatives, Transmission,[7] aria2[8]). An alternative multicast peer discovery protocol is published as BEP 26, but is not widely adopted since it is considered too complex[9] in comparison.

  1. ^ a b "BitTorrent Enhancement Proposal 14: Local Service Discovery". BitTorrent.org. 29 October 2015. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  2. ^ "Protocol Design Discussion » Local Peer Discovery Documentation". 2009-10-30. Retrieved 2009-12-12.
  3. ^ "Announcements » μTorrent 1.7 Release Candidate 6". 2007-06-28. Archived from the original on 2012-03-08. Retrieved 2009-12-12.
  4. ^ "BitTorrent User Manual". Archived from the original on 2009-12-27. Retrieved 2009-12-12.
  5. ^ "MonoTorrent 0.80". Retrieved 2010-05-05.
  6. ^ "libtorrent manual: features". Retrieved 2009-12-12.
  7. ^ "Release Notes: Transmission 2.00". GitHub. 2010-06-15. Retrieved 2020-05-23.
  8. ^ "Aria2 Manual: OPTIONS". Retrieved 2015-09-14.
  9. ^ "Transmission Bug Tracker: Zeroconf Peer Advertising and Discovery". Retrieved 2016-10-26.