Gnutella Specification Question
 

Hi, I'm doing a report on the Gnutella network (just basically how it works and all that). I was reading this link for the specification of version 0.4 http://www9.limewire.com/developer/g...otocol_0.4.pdf and I got to this part and don't quite understand it (page 6):

"A servent receiving a descriptor with the same Payload Descriptor and Descriptor ID as one it has received before, should attempt to avoid forwarding the descriptor to any connected servent. Its intended recipients have already received such a descriptor, and sending it again merely wastes network bandwidth."

It really doesn't make sense. The way I understand (just by reading it) it is that a servent can only send one descriptor (which I know is wrong) since it just checks if the payload descriptor and the descriptor ID are the same as ones before that it sent.

So can someone explain it a bit better and basically how it works? Does a servent always change their ID each time they send another descriptor?

Thanks

Go back to page two:

Every message of all types have a unique descriptor, or "ID number".

Servents also have their own ID numbers, but this is referring to the unique ID
numbers of each individual message packet.

Any duplicate message of any type is dropped on sight. Once is enough for
each message.

Please also remember, that 0.4 is completely outdated.

If you want to write a report on Gnutella, please write it about the current Version: 0.6

Some code-free info on the inner workings of Gnutella can be found at http://gnufu.net : Gnutella For Users