You can start by defining
1) the functionalities of your P2P application, and
2) the protocol of your P2P application.

mako schrieb:

Think about what kind of p2p system you want ...

I think creating the overlay graph that you then use for communication
would be the first job.

Very easy might be a random Graph created by a pointer push and pull
operation.

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when you did this you may want to create a sort of DHT on this random
graph ... if you want something state of the Art take a look at
distributed weighted hashing (i.e.
http://cone.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/pubs/WDHT.pdf ) .. probably not
to easy to code but they allow you very powerful searches in your p2p
network...

For filetransfer you could create a little instance of your random graph
to which all can join that want sth...
And then either wither use some BT like protocol or have a look at
Microsoft's Avalanche .. if you can implement Network Coding in in a
perfomant way this may rock.

Well the question is .. how large is the course .. how many hours can
how many people invest into the project.

Christian