SkipNet: A Scalable Overlay Network with Practical Locality Properties

: Scalable overlay networks such as Chord, Pastry, and Tapestry have recently emerged as a flexible infrastructure for building large peer-to-peer systems. In practice, two disadvantages of such systems are that it is difficult to control where data is stored and difficult to guarantee that routing paths remain within an administrative domain. SkipNet is a scalable overlay network that provides controlled data placement and routing locality guarantees by organizing data primarily by lexicographic key ordering. SkipNet also allows for both fine-grained and coarsegrained control over data placement, where content can be placed either on a pre-determined node or distributed uniformly across the nodes of a hierarchical naming subtree. An additional useful consequence of SkipNet’s locality properties is that partition failures, in which an entire organization disconnects from the rest of the system, result in two disjoint, but well-connected overlay networks.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2003
• Where: USITS
• Authors: Nicholas J. A. Harvey, Michael B. Jones, Stefan Saroiu, Marvin Theimer, Alec Wolman
• Keywords: Data Placement, Operating System, Overlay Networks, Scalable Overlay Network, USITS 2003