On the design of hybrid peer-to-peer systems

In this paper, we consider hybrid peer-to-peer systems where users form an unstructured peer-to-peer network with the purpose of assisting a server in the distribution of data. We present a mathematical model that we use to analyze the scalability of hybrid peer-to-peer systems under two query propagation mechanisms: the random walk and the expanding ring. In particular, we characterize how the query load at the server, the load at peers as well as the query response time scale as the number of users in the peer-to-peer network increases. We show that, under a properly designed random walk propagation mechanism, hybrid peer-to-peer systems can support an unbounded number of users while requiring only bounded resources both at the server and at individual peers. This important result shows that hybrid peer-to-peer systems have excellent scalability properties. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that a theoretical study characterizing the scalability of such hybrid pee...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2008
• Where: SIGMETRICS
• Authors: Stratis Ioannidis, Peter Marbach
• Keywords: Hardware, Peer-to-peer Network, Peer-to-peer Systems, SIGMETRICS 2008, Unstructured Peer-to-peer Network