Not really - the BitTorrent protocol doesn't impose any order upon which chunks of a file are downloaded first. As a consequence, the file is unusable until all the chunks have been received. The stream swarming concept imposes an ordering so that chunks are downloaded in order, which complicates the swarming algorithm somewhat.
This is only an issue for distributed, peer-to-peer applications. When you download a file from a specific server, you get the bits in order (well, not really, but reordering the packets is handled at the TCP/IP level.) The reason that swarmstreaming is interesting is that it allows a producer of streaming media to offload his upstream bandwidth demands onto the upstream bandwidth of clients connected to the network. So, for example, you could produce your own internet TV show and host it from your DSL connection and still have it available to millions of people more or less simultaneously. |
