Is peer-to-peer software architecture or just a pattern?

Question

I am doing a research on peer-to-peer systems and I can't have a clear answer or wether peer to peer is an actual architecture or just a design patter of a system. If its just a pattern what would be a good architecture to implement peer-to-peer pattern to build a disturbed system?

Thanks

Answer 1

It is absolutely an architecture. "Architecture" has dozens of definitions, but most people would agree that the components and how they coordinate to accomplish particular systems tasks falls squarely into "Architecture".