Optimising Structured P2P Networks for Complex Queries

With network enabled consumer devices becoming increasingly popular, the number of connected devices and available services is growing considerably - with the number of connected devices es- timated to surpass 15 billion devices by 2015. In this increasingly large and dynamic environment it is important that users have a comprehensive, yet efficient, mechanism to discover services. Many existing wide-area service discovery mechanisms are centralised and do not scale to large numbers of users. Additionally, centralised services suffer from issues such as a single point of failure, high maintenance costs, and difficulty of management. As such, this Thesis seeks a Peer to Peer (P2P) approach. Distributed Hash Tables (DHTs) are well known for their high scalability, financially low barrier of entry, and ability to self manage. They can be used to provide not just a platform on which peers can offer and consume services, but also as a means for users to discover such services. Traditionally DHTs provide a distributed key-value store, with no search functionality. In recent years many P2P systems have been proposed providing support for a sub-set of complex query types, such as keyword search, range queries, and semantic search. This Thesis presents a novel algorithm for performing any type of complex query, from keyword search, to complex regular expressions, to full-text search, over any structured P2P overlay. This is achieved by efficiently broadcasting the search query, allowing each peer to process the query locally, and then efficiently routing responses back to the originating peer. Through experimentation, this technique is shown to be successful when the network is stable, however performance degrades under high levels of network churn. To address the issue of network churn, this Thesis proposes a number of enhancements which can be made to existing P2P overlays in order to improve the performance of both the existing DHT and the proposed algorithm. Through two case studies these enhancements are shown to improve not only the performance of the proposed algorithm under churn, but also the performance of traditional lookup operations in these networks

An evaluation of EpiChord in OverSim

EpiChord is a Distributed Hash Table (DHT) algorithm which supports data storage/retrieval in large scale distributed systems. It removes the typicalO(logn)-state-per-node restriction imposed by the majority of other DHT topologies by employing a reactive routing state maintenance strategy that amortizes network maintenance costs into lookup queries. Under ideal condition, EpiChord’s lookup performance can approach O(1) hops – with maintenance costs comparable to traditional multi-hop DHTs. This paper presents an implementation of EpiChord in OverSim, and validates the performance of our model against the performance reported in the original EpiChord paper. We also present some adjustments to the algorithm to remove a discrepancy and then compare our modified results with the original ones. Finally, we present additional results showing the EpiChord algorithm is stable over time and performs well for larger networks

Structured Peer-to-Peer Overlays for NATed Churn Intensive Networks

The wide-spread coverage and ubiquitous presence of mobile networks has propelled the usage and adoption of mobile phones to an unprecedented level around the globe. The computing capabilities of these mobile phones have improved considerably, supporting a vast range of third party applications. Simultaneously, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) overlay networks have experienced a tremendous growth in terms of usage as well as popularity in recent years particularly in fixed wired networks. In particular, Distributed Hash Table (DHT) based Structured P2P overlay networks offer major advantages to users of mobile devices and networks such as scalable, fault tolerant and self-managing infrastructure which does not exhibit single points of failure. Integrating P2P overlays on the mobile network seems a logical progression; considering the popularities of both technologies. However, it imposes several challenges that need to be handled, such as the limited hardware capabilities of mobile phones and churn (i.e. the frequent join and leave of nodes within a network) intensive mobile networks offering limited yet expensive bandwidth availability. This thesis investigates the feasibility of extending P2P to mobile networks so that users can take advantage of both these technologies: P2P and mobile networks. This thesis utilises OverSim, a P2P simulator, to experiment with the performance of various P2P overlays, considering high churn and bandwidth consumption which are the two most crucial constraints of mobile networks. The experiment results show that Kademlia and EpiChord are the two most appropriate P2P overlays that could be implemented in mobile networks. Furthermore, Network Address Translation (NAT) is a major barrier to the adoption of P2P overlays in mobile networks. Integrating NAT traversal approaches with P2P overlays is a crucial step for P2P overlays to operate successfully on mobile networks. This thesis presents a general approach of NAT traversal for ring based overlays without the use of a single dedicated server which is then implemented in OverSim. Several experiments have been performed under NATs to determine the suitability of the chosen P2P overlays under NATed environments. The results show that the performance of these overlays is comparable in terms of successful lookups in both NATed and non-NATed environments; with Kademlia and EpiChord exhibiting the best performance. The presence of NATs and also the level of churn in a network influence the routing techniques used in P2P overlays. Recursive routing is more resilient to IP connectivity restrictions posed by NATs but not very robust in high churn environments, whereas iterative routing is more suitable to high churn networks, but difficult to use in NATed environments. Kademlia supports both these routing schemes whereas EpiChord only supports the iterating routing. This undermines the usefulness of EpiChord in NATed environments. In order to harness the advantages of both routing schemes, this thesis presents an adaptive routing scheme, called Churn Aware Routing Protocol (ChARP), combining recursive and iterative lookups where nodes can switch between recursive and iterative routing depending on their lifetimes. The proposed approach has been implemented in OverSim and several experiments have been carried out. The experiment results indicate an improved performance which in turn validates the applicability and suitability of ChARP in NATed environments

Designs and Analyses in Structured Peer-To-Peer Systems

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) computing is a recent hot topic in the areas of networking and distributed systems. Work on P2P computing was triggered by a number of ad-hoc systems that made the concept popular. Later, academic research efforts started to investigate P2P computing issues based on scientific principles. Some of that research produced a number of structured P2P systems that were collectively referred to by the term "Distributed Hash Tables" (DHTs). However, the research occurred in a diversified way leading to the appearance of similar concepts yet lacking a common perspective and not heavily analyzed. In this thesis we present a number of papers representing our research results in the area of structured P2P systems grouped as two sets labeled respectively "Designs" and "Analyses". The contribution of the first set of papers is as follows. First, we present the princi- ple of distributed k-ary search and argue that it serves as a framework for most of the recent P2P systems known as DHTs. That is, given this framework, understanding existing DHT systems is done simply by seeing how they are instances of that frame- work. We argue that by perceiving systems as instances of that framework, one can optimize some of them. We illustrate that by applying the framework to the Chord system, one of the most established DHT systems. Second, we show how the frame- work helps in the design of P2P algorithms by two examples: (a) The DKS(n; k; f) system which is a system designed from the beginning on the principles of distributed k-ary search. (b) Two broadcast algorithms that take advantage of the distributed k-ary search tree. The contribution of the second set of papers is as follows. We account for two approaches that we used to evaluate the performance of a particular class of DHTs, namely the one adopting periodic stabilization for topology maintenance. The first approach was of an intrinsic empirical nature. In this approach, we tried to perceive a DHT as a physical system and account for its properties in a size-independent manner. The second approach was of a more analytical nature. In this approach, we applied the technique of Master Equations, which is a widely used technique in the analysis of natural systems. The application of the technique lead to a highly accurate description of the behavior of structured overlays. Additionally, the thesis contains a primer on structured P2P systems that tries to capture the main ideas prevailing in the field

A Balanced Trust-Based Method to Counter Sybil and Spartacus Attacks in Chord

A Sybil attack is one of the main challenges to be addressed when securing peer-to-peer networks, especially those based on Distributed Hash Tables (DHTs). Tampering routing tables by means of multiple fake identities can make routing, storing, and retrieving operations significantly more difficult and time-consuming. Countermeasures based on trust and reputation have already proven to be effective in some contexts, but one variant of the Sybil attack, the Spartacus attack, is emerging as a new threat and its effects are even riskier and more difficult to stymie. In this paper, we first improve a well-known and deployed DHT (Chord) through a solution mixing trust with standard operations, for facing a Sybil attack affecting either routing or storage and retrieval operations. This is done by maintaining the least possible overhead for peers. Moreover, we extend the solution we propose in order for it to be resilient also against a Spartacus attack, both for an iterative and for a recursive lookup procedure. Finally, we validate our findings by showing that the proposed techniques outperform other trust-based solutions already known in the literature as well

Validation of H-P2PSIP, a scalable solution for interoperability among different overlay networks

This paper reports the results of experiments from an implementation of H-P2PSIP, a hierarchical overlay architecture based on the ongoing work in the IETF P2PSIP Working Group. This architecture allows the exchange of information among different independent overlay networks through the use of a two-layer architecture based on super-peers and hierarchical identifiers. The validation of this proposal is based on a Linux based real implementation where we have used four different scenarios with 1,000 peers in order to perform different experiments. We have obtained results for different parameters such as routing performance (number of hops), delay, routing state (number of overlay routing entries) and bandwidth consumption.This research was supported in part by the European Commission Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement n 25774 (TREND Network of Excellence), Comunidad de Madrid grant S-2009/TIC-1468 (MEDIANET project) and Spanish MICINN grant TEC2011-29688-C02-02 (eeCONTENT project).Publicad

Simulating a Mobile Peer-to-Peer Network

Vertaisverkkosovellukset (P2P-sovellukset) ovat saapuneet kannettaviin laitteisiin, kun laitteiden prosessoriteho, tallennuskapasiteetti sekä matkapuhelinverkkojen kaistanleveys on kasvanut. Perinteiset P2P-sovellukset ovat liian raskaita mobiilikäyttöön. Uusia, kevyempiä vertaisverkkoprotokollia tarvitaan mahdollistamaan P2P-sovellusten toiminta mobiiliympäristössä. P2P Session Initiation Protocol (P2PSIP) on kehitteillä oleva protokolla, jonka avulla SIP protokollan yhteydenmuodostus toteutetaan ilman palvelimia. Tämän työn tavoitteena oli simuloinnin avulla tutkia Resource Location and Delivery (RELOAD) vertaisprotokollaa käyttävää P2PSIP päällysverkkoa. Tarkastelun kohteena olivat erityisesti kaistanleveyden tarve, hakujen kustannukset sekä hakujen onnistuminen. Myös solmujen päällysverkkoon liittymisestä ja päällysverkosta poistumisesta aiheutuvat vaikutukset tuloksiin olivat mielenkiinnon kohteina. Tämä työ vertailee kahden hajautetun tiivistetaulualgoritmin, Chordin ja Kademlian, suorituskykyä. Simulaatiot on suoritettu C++ ohjelmointikielellä toteutetulla OverSimpäällysverkkosimulaattorilla. Tämä työ osoittaa, että 2G-matkapuhelinverkon kaistanleveys on riittävä P2PSIPpäällysverkon tarpeisiin. Kademliaa käytettäessä kaistanleveys on suurempi, mutta hakujen viive pienempi ja onnistumisprosentti suurempi kuin Chordia käytettäessä. Tulokset osoittavat, että tässä työssä käytetyillä parametreilla hakujen onnistumisprosentti on monille sovelluksille liian alhainen eikä mahdollista niille tyydyttävää palvelun laatua.Peer-to-peer (P2P) applications have become available for portable devices as the processing power and the storage capacity of the devices as well as the network bandwidth have increased. The traditional P2P applications have been considered too heavy for mobile usage. New, lightweight P2P protocols are needed for mobile P2P applications. P2P Session Initiation Protocol (P2PSIP) is a protocol under development that provides the session establishment functions of SIP in a serverless fashion. The main objective of this thesis was to simulate a P2PSIP overlay network operating with Resource Location And Delivery (RELOAD) peer protocol and study its bandwidth consumption, lookup overhead and lookup success rate. The effect of churn, the process of nodes arriving to the overlay and leaving it, on these results was also one of our concerns. We study if this kind of network is applicable to be implemented on top of current mobile telephone networks. This study compares the performance of two distributed hash table (DHT) algorithms, Chord and Kademlia. The simulations were carried out with OverSim overlay network simulator implemented in the C++ programming language. This study shows that P2PSIP network's bandwidth usage is low enough to operate on top of the 2G mobile telephone networks. Kademlia uses more bandwidth than Chord but it has a shorter lookup delay and a higher lookup success rate than Chord. The results show that with the parameter settings used in our study the lookup success rates are in general too low for many applications to give them a satisfying quality of service