Mícheál Ó Foghlú's Weblog

Analysis of Skype

Here's a reference to an interesting analysis of the technology used in Skype, and a discussion of "Edge-connectivity" as a concept SATN.org: Comments from Bob Frankston, David Reed, Dan Bricklin, and others

It is useful to be able to understand how Skype works in detail in order to trust the code. I'm glad to see that the authors noted that it is difficult to block Skype traffic.
The more important result is to understand Skype's Edge-connectivity. It's an example of how communities can stay connected independent on the accidental properties of the Internet and the gatekeepers. Because the relationships are maintained at the edge mobility is fundamental. You don't need the network to do meshing when the applications maintain their own relationships. Meshing then becomes a low level technique for pooling routers rather than a way to make applications mobile.