peer-to-peer

peer-to-peer, or P2P, refers to a type of network service connection where users' computers connect together directly without the need for a central server, although one or more central "trackers" are often used to help arrange the connections and track activity. The primary advantage of peer-to-peer over client-server is that there is no central bandwidth (or other resource, such as CPU or storage) bottleneck.

BitTorrent downloads are a popular example of peer-to-peer connectivity.