As previously discussed on this blog, µTP is an upgraded lightweight BitTorrent protocol, introduced in v2 of our popular µTorrent client, that makes efficient use of bandwidth while reducing network problems. For the past several months we have been polishing our implementation of µTP in µTorrent, resulting in several minor upgrades of the client as we figure out how to make it perform optimally under an incredibly wide range of scenarios.

Today, we are announcing that we have created an open source implementation of the protocol in the hope of extending its adoption within the BitTorrent ecosystem and possibly beyond. This code has been posted here on Github, a popular collaborative software development environment, so that others may get the benefits from this technology as well as contribute back to the code on an ongoing basis.

We have spent a significant amount of time and resources on µTP because we believe that it can yield significant results for both consumers and network operators. If you are just now joining the µTP conversation, you may visit to some of our earlier blog posts on the topic. In short:

– µTP maximizes network throughput while minimizing network congestion by rapidly detecting congestion and slowing itself down when the network is overloaded. The result is faster downloads for users with lower network impact for both users and ISPs;

– µTP is user-friendly within a home network, so one computer using BitTorrent will not consume the whole network;

– µTP is an open protocol which has been publicly disclosed and submitted for review in standards-making bodies (learn more about standardization of µTP on bittorrent.org and at the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) at the LEDBAT working group);

We continue to be polish and optimize µTP, but we’re very encouraged by the results that we have seen so far. We believe that open sourcing our implementation is a critical next step in ensuring adoption, compatibility and the best  experience for all BitTorrent users.

– Simon –