P2P also known as peer to peer is an online protocol that we all know and that is used by most of the file sharing networks for transferring large movie, software and other files via the internet.

There is now a new kid in town known as (cue fanfare) P4P or its slighly longer term Proactive network Provider Participation for P2P. Now apart from being a mouthful P4P being introduced by a company called Verizon Communications.

Unlike the P2P format which selects random peers to share bits and pieces of content randomly with and doesnt consider the actual location of where th data is. So for example data from London and China travelling to New York. P4P uses AI to select the most efficient and nearest data streams between P2P connections.

P2P eats a massive amount of bandwidth causing service providers a resource problem. Comcast the large Cable operator has even resorted to slowing down certain peer to peer traffic to keep its network running efficiently.

P4P performance boosts download speeds by 200 - 600 percent on P2P.

At an upcoming conference in New York, Verizon will present their test results, which show that when an ISP cooperates with file-sharing, they can speed downloads an average of 60 percent.

This exciting P4P technology will soon start being utilised although you wont really notice apart from your download speeds increasing. Whoopeedoo.