Does the GET fulfillment go through the same channel that the request goes through?
If node(A) requests a chunk that happens to be on node(Z):
- the closest node that (A) knows about is (C)
- the closest node that (C) knows is (Y)
- (Y) knows (Z)
- (Z) has the chunk
- (Z) knows (B) who is closer to (A) than (Y), so sends the chunk to (B)
- (B) forwards chunk to (A)
In that case, the route taken back to the requesting node will always be the same length if not shorter. And shorter is what would ease the strain on the network bandwidth.