NetFS Overview
NetFS is a peer-to-peer protocol for distributing and incrementally updating entire file systems of files. It can handle many small files, mixed with really large ones with near optimal download speed for most users most of the time. Like BitTorrent, it allows a publisher to distribute files to very many peers with minimal load on itself, since the peers upload mostly from each other.
With NetFS, peers are typically not downloading anything at all. Instead, they serve up the file pieces they've cached on-demand, as needed at high bandwidth, and occasionally download a file when it's accessed for the first time. Most of the time, the network connection is idle. They are available to relay data that is in high demand, however, enabling NetFS to be far faster than BitTorrent for downloading large files when demand surges.
