The interesting properties of P2P systems (high availability despite node volatility, support for heterogeneous architectures, high scalability, etc.) make them attractive for distributed computing. However, conducting large-scale experiments with these systems arise as a major challenge. Simulation allows to model only partially the behavior of P2P prototypes. Experiments on real testbeds encounter serious difficulty with large-scale deployment and control of peers. This paper shows that using an optimized version of the JXTA Distributed Framework (JDF) allows to easily deploy, configure and control P2P experiments. We illustrate these features with sample tests performed with our JXTA-based grid data sharing service, for various large-scale configurations.