Peer-to-peer networking (P2P)

Peer-to-peer is a computer network in which the participating computers do not play the predefined roles in the network,  but instead they change roles from client to server, and vice versa, based on the actual activity on the network. For example, if computer A is accessing resources from computer B, then computer A acts as the client, while computer B acts as the server. After some time, if computer B accesses resources from computer A, then computer B becomes a client and computer A becomes a server. As you may notice, they switch roles based on who is requesting and who is providing a resource on the network. Figure 1.18 presents an example of peer-to-peer networking: