P2P DHT (Peer-to-Peer Distributed Hash Table) is one of typical techniques for realizing an efficient management of shared resources distributed over a network and a keyword search over such networks in a fully distributed manner. In this paper, we propose a new method for supporting conjunctive queries in P2P DHT. The basic idea of the proposed technique is to share a global information on past trials by conducting a local caching of search results for conjunctive queries and by registering the fact to the global DHT. Such a result caching is expected to significantly reduce the amount of transmitted data compared with conventional schemes. The effect of the proposed method is experimentally evaluated by simulation. The result of experiments indicates that by using the proposed method, the amount of returned data is reduced by 60% compared with conventional P2P DHT which does not support conjunctive queries.

The overall performance of P2P-based file sharing applications is becoming increasingly important. Based on the Adaptive Resource-based Probabilistic Search algorithm (ARPS), which was previously proposed by the authors, a novel probabilistic search algorithm with QoS guarantees is proposed in this letter. The algorithm relies on generating functions to satisfy the user's constraints and to exploit the power-law distribution in the node degree. Simulation results demonstrate that it performs well under various P2P scenarios. The proposed algorithm provides guarantees on the search performance perceived by the user while minimizing the search cost. Furthermore, it allows different QoS levels, resulting in greater flexibility and scalability.

Wireless content sharing where peers share content and services via wireless access networks requires user contributions, as in fixed P2P content sharing. However, in wireless access environments, since the resources of mobile terminals are strictly limited, mobile users are not as likely to contribute as ones in fixed environments. Therefore, incentives to encourage user contributions are more significant in wireless access environments. Although an incentive service differentiation architecture where the content transfer rate is adjusted according to the contributions of each downloading user has been already proposed for fixed P2P, it may not work well in wireless access environments because several factors effect wireless throughput. In this paper, we propose a novel architecture for contribution-based transfer-rate differentiation using wireless quality of service (QoS) techniques that motivates users to contribute their resources for wireless content sharing. We also propose a radio resource assignment method for our architecture. Computer simulations and game-theoretic calculations validate our architecture.

This paper proposes a new method for realizing the web page recommendation system by sharing users' web browse history on an anonymous P2P network. Our scheme creates a user profile, a summary of the user's web browse trends, by analyzing the contents of the web pages browsed. The scheme then provides a P2P network to exchange web browse histories so as to create mutual web page recommendations. The novelty of our method lies in its P2P network formulation; it is formulated in a way so that users having similar user profiles are automatically connected, yet their user profiles are protected from being disclosed to other users. The proposed method intentionally distributes bogus user profiles on the P2P network, while not harming the efficiency of the web browse history sharing process.

It is predicted that there will be a high demand for video applications in future wireless networks including wireless ad hoc networks. However, supporting video applications over mobile ad hoc networks is more complicated than with other networks due to the lack of support from a preinstalled infrastructure. In this paper, we tackle this problem by adopting the concept of multipoint-to-point video transmission used in wire-line networks. A novel framework designed with features to accommodate the characteristics of ad hoc networks is presented. There are two key features in our proposal. First, Multiple Description Coding (MDC) scheme is used for video coding to reduce the redundancy by avoiding the transmission of duplicate video frames. Second, the routing protocol is expanded to include finding disjoint routes from video sources to the receiver so that a single link breakage or a single intermediate node failure affects transmission from only the minimum number of nodes. Furthermore, the use of disjoint routes also enables the workload to be distributed more evenly within the network. A simulation study was carried out using NS-2 to demonstrate the performance of the proposed mechanism. We show that the proposed mechanism outperforms conventional point-to-point transmission, especially under conditions of high mobility.

A novel Adaptive Resource-based Probabilistic Search algorithm (ARPS) for P2P networks is proposed in this paper. ARPS introduces probabilistic forwarding for query messages according to the popularity of the resource being searched. A mechanism is introduced to estimate the popularity and adjust the forwarding probability accordingly such that a tradeoff between search performance and cost can be made. Using computer simulations, we compare the performance of ARPS with several other search algorithms. It is shown that ARPS performs well under various P2P scenarios. ARPS guarantees a success rate above a certain level under all circumstances, and enjoys high and popularity-invariant search success rate. Furthermore, ARPS adapts well to the variation of popularity, resulting in high efficiency and flexibility.

Some major P2P file distribution systems adopt Tit-For-Tat exchange strategy, which means "initially cooperate, then respond in kind to a previous opponent's action, i.e. cooperative or not." However, when sharing a file on such P2P systems, the random peer selection has a problem in that each peer cannot download the file enough efficiently. The peer selection method that groups peers according to their rate has been proposed to solve this problem. This method is supposed to be able to alleviate the difference in performance among peers because it lets peers with similar transmitting rate connect to each other. However, when reduction in peer performance or link one occurs, which is often observed on today's Internet, some problems will emerge, such as it takes a long time for the existing method to reconfigure groups; 2) immediate reconstruction of neighbor peers has not been taken into account when peers detect deterioration in downloading performance. Therefore, we propose a method that reconfigures the group of neighbor peers once a peer notices that the performance of connected peers decreases. The proposed method is evaluated through simulation experiments using BitTorrent as an instance of Tit-For-Tat strategy. The download time of all peers and that of the peer with performance deterioration are estimated focusing on the effect of switching a degraded peer to another immediately. As a result, we confirm that our proposal can distribute files among all peers faster than the existing method keeping incentives for users to some extent. We believe that the proposal which can adapt to the sudden network deterioration is one of the most important technologies for evolution of network software.

In peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, reputation is used to estimate the trustworthiness of servents and to help prevent untrustworthy resources from spreading by malicious servents. However, in dynamic scenarios with arrivals and departures of servents and resources, servent reputation is not enough to reduce the impacts of malicious behaviors such as lying, whitewashing, etc. In this paper, we propose a new reputation management model using both servent and resource reputation and demonstrate detail protocols to implement our model in structured P2P networks. Simulation results show that our model can reduce the rate of downloading untrustworthy resources more rapidly than the previous models even in dynamic scenarios where servents can rejoin with new identities, introduce new untrustworthy resources, and send wrong feedbacks. Also, we show that the proposed model and protocol can effectively share the load between servents.

Geographic distributed hash table (DHT) protocols are considered to be efficient for P2P object sharing in mobile ad-hoc networks. These protocols assume that the set of pairs, called indexes, should be distributed among nodes according to the following hashing mapping rule: A key hashes into a geographic coordinate, and the corresponding index is stored at the node closest to the key's hash value. Therefore, when a node changes its position, some indexes have to be redistributed to other nodes in order to keep the hashing mapping rule consistent. The overhead of index redistribution may be high enough to impact the normal lookup operation if each node contains a large number of indexes. In this paper, we propose an efficient lookup protocol, called Double Indirect Access, that dispenses with index redistribution to improve lookup performance. The main idea is to determine the mapping from an index to a node not by the node's position, but by the node's static identifier that is obtained by hashing its MAC address into a geographic coordinate. However, a key lookup request will be routed to some node based on the key's hash value, resulting in failure of locating the index. In Double Indirect Access, the node to which a key lookup request has been routed is named as an indirection server, and it is responsible for relaying the lookup request to the node storing the corresponding index. In order for the indirection server to find out the correct destination node for the lookup request, it maintains a list of nodes' static identifiers whose values (i.e., geographic coordinates) are close to the location of the indirection server. Simulation results show that, when the average number of objects per node is more than 256, our approach is able to reduce the number of packet transmissions by about a half compared to the conventional geographical DHT protocol. It is also shown that, even when the average number of objects per node is about 9-16, the overhead of our approach is comparable with the conventional protocol.

Overlay networks, such as P2P, Grid, and CDN, have been widely deployed over physical IP networks. Since simultaneous overlay networks compete for network resources, their selfish behaviors to improve their application-oriented QoS disrupt each other. To enhance the collective performance and improve the QoS at the application level, we consider so-called the overlay network symbiosis where overlay networks cooperate with each other. In this paper, we proposed a cooperative mechanism for hybrid P2P file-sharing networks, where peers can find more files and exchange files with more peers. Through simulation experiments, we verified the effectiveness of cooperation from view points of application and system.

Large-throughput anomaly prevention mechanism in the upstream side of high-speed (over 10-Gbps) networks is required to prevent various anomalies such as distributed denial of service (DDoS) from causing various network problems. This mechanism requests the processors achieving not only high-speed response for analyzing many packets in a short time but also the flexibility to update the anomaly prevention algorithm. In this research, I assumed a dynamic reconfigurable processor (DRP) was most effective in achieving this anomaly prevention mechanism, for processors used in nodes with the mechanism, and I designed an anomaly prevention mechanism using DRPs. The mechanism can shorten anomaly prevention time in high-speed (10 Gbps) lines using an all-packet analysis. Through a simulation, I achieved the goal of the mechanism achieving a throughput of 83-M packets per second using three DRPs (432 execution elements used). Moreover, with the prototype, it was confirmed that the proposed mechanism prevented anomalies in a short time (constant 0.01 second), which was 3000 times faster than that of a legacy mechanism using a packet sampling method. I also proposed integrated prevention, which was able to reduce the number of execution elements comprising anomaly prevention algorithm against various kinds of anomalies. It was achieved with a simulation that the proposed integrated prevention against three kinds of anomalies (DDoS, worm, and peer to peer (P2P)) reduced the number of execution elements by 24% compared to legacy prevention. In addition, non-stop update was proposed to maintain throughput when updating an anomaly prevention algorithm without packet loss. It was confirmed with a simulation that there was enough time for non-stop update in 10 Gbps 4 lines.

To provide application-oriented network services, a variety of overlay networks are deployed over physical IP networks. Since they share and compete for the same physical network resources, their selfish behaviors affect each other and, as a result, their performance deteriorates. Our research group considers a model of overlay network symbiosis, where overlay networks coexist and cooperate to improve their application-level quality of service (QoS) while sustaining influences from the physical network and other overlay networks. In this paper, we especially focus on Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks among various overlay networks. We propose a mechanism for pure P2P networks of file-sharing applications to cooperate with each other. In our proposal, cooperative peers establish logical links among two or more P2P networks, and messages and files are exchanged among cooperative P2P networks through these logical links. For efficient and effective cooperation, we also propose an algorithm for selection of cooperative peers and a caching mechanism to avoid putting too much load on cooperative peers and cooperating networks. Simulation results show that our proposed mechanism improves the search efficiency of P2P file-sharing applications and reduces the load in P2P networks.

Content-Addressable Network (CAN) provides a mechanism that could retrieve objects in a P2P network by maintaining indices to those objects in a fully decentralized manner. In the CAN system, index caching is a useful technique for reducing the response time of retrieving objects. The key points of effective caching techniques are to improve cache hit ratio by actively sharing caches distributed over the P2P network with every node and to reduce a maintenance and/or routing overhead for locating the cache of a requested index. In this paper, we propose a new caching technique based on the notion of proxy-type caching techniques which have been widely used in WWW systems. It can achieve active cache sharing by incorporating the concept of proxy caching into the index access mechanism and locate a closer proxy cache of a requested index with a little routing overhead. By the result of simulations, we conclude that it can improve the response time of retrieving indices by 30% compared with conventional caching techniques.

A peer-to-peer complementary currency can be a powerful tool for promoting exchanges and building relationships on the Internet. iWAT [1] is a proposed such currency based on the WAT System [2], a polycentric complementary currency using WAT tickets as its media of exchange: participants spontaneously issue and circulate the tickets as needed, whose values are backed up by chains of trust. iWAT implements the tickets electronically by exchanging messages signed in OpenPGP [3]. This paper investigates an extension to the design of iWAT to facilitate mutual help among peers in need. In particular, we investigate additional "reduction" tickets whose values are reduced over time. By deferring redemption of such tickets, the participants can contribute to reduce the debts of the issuers, and the issuers help participants by providing exchange media that accelerate spending. This paper describes in detail how incentive-compatibility is achieved by this extended design; we predict that the following properties will hold, which resulted from a game-theoretical analysis.1. Rapid circulation, or a reduction ticket will typically circulate at high speed until its effective value reaches the scheduled minimum, and2. Vanishment equilibrium, or the system will be most stable if the values of tickets are to be reduced down to zero. A reference implementation of iWAT has been developed in the form of a plug-in for an XMPP [4],[5] instant messaging client. We have been putting the currency system into practical use, to which the proposed feature has been added.

In a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) network, in order to improve the search performance and to achieve load balancing, replicas of original data are created and distributed over the Internet. However, the replication methods which have been proposed so far focus only on the improvement of search performance. In this paper, we examine the load on the storage systems, which is due to writing and reading, and propose two replication methods for balancing the load on the storages distributed over P2P networks while limiting the degradation of the search performance within an acceptable level. Furthermore, we investigate the performance of our proposed replication methods through computer simulations, and show their effectiveness in balancing the load.

In pure peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing applications and protocols using a flooding-based query algorithm, a large number of control packets (query packets) are transmitted on the network to search for target files. This clearly leads to a degradation of communication quality on the network and terminals as the number of users of the application increases. To solve such problems, this paper proposes: (1) a unified framework to describe a wide variety of query algorithms for pure P2P and (2) a new query algorithm based on this framework. Our framework determines the number of destinations for query packets based on the hop value recorded in received query packets. Simulation results revealed that the proposed query algorithm can reduce the overhead in the flooding-based query algorithm and k-random walks without decreasing the success rate of retrieval regardless of the density of target files in the network.

Application-level multicast (ALM) is a feasible alternative to IP multicast. In ALM, multicast related features, such as group membership management, multicast routing and packet replication, are implemented at end-hosts instead of routers. A multicast distribution tree is constructed in the application layer, so all nodes in this tree are end-hosts. Packet transmission between end-hosts uses conventional IP unicast service. Therefore, all end-hosts can enjoy multicast communications without IP multicast service. However, ALM has a serious problem that the multicast distribution tree is intrinsically fragile and an end-host failure causes tree partitions. In this paper, to deal with this problem, we propose a new tree construction protocol which makes outdegrees of intermediate nodes be balanced. The degree-balanced distribution tree can reduce the average number of nodes decoupled by tree partitions. To investigate performance of our protocol, it is compared with an existing ALM protocol. Our simulation results show that our protocol outperforms the existing protocol from the viewpoints of robustness, loss probability and receiver-perceived delay.

This paper discusses effective configuration methods for peer-to-peer (P2P) network topologies within a mobile ad-hoc network. With recent progress in mobile ad-hoc network technology promoting the creation of new and attractive services, we are examining and developing P2P network systems for operation within ad-hoc networks. Our focus is on identifying methods of network-topology control that provide the best balance between performance and availability. We evaluate three methods through computer simulation and field trials from the viewpoints of resource consumption and network integrity, and clarify their domains of applicability. The results are expected to contribute to the design of future P2P networks for operation in mobile ad-hoc networks.

A peer-to-peer (P2P) Contents Delivery Network (CDN) is a system in which the users get together to forward contents so that the load at a server is reduced. Lately, we have high-speed services for an access to the Internet such as the Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL). Some broadcasters may not have such services because they have only dial-up services and wireless services as PHS and a mobile phone to broadcast live. A problem with P2P CDN is its overhead to construct a distribution tree. It becomes a crucial problem when a broadcaster has only a low-speed access to the Internet, and we propose a P2P CDN system which reduces such an overhead. A server peer is the root peer of a distribution tree and provides users with contents. With the existing algorithms, new peers measure a Round Trip Time (RTT) and a throughput from a broadcaster site when they join the distribution tree. With our algorithm, a new peer sends the server peer a Search Request message which is forwarded throughout the distribution tree until a suitable peer which has enough bandwidth to accomodate is found finally so that the new peer will measure a throughput to that peer. The problem with our algorithm is that as the number of users in the tree increases, the new peer will be preoccupied with measurement, because it may find many suitable peers as its parent candidates. To solve this problem, we introduce a Time To Stop Broadcast (TTSB) on the Search Request message in order to reduce the number of measurement. We have compared the traditional algorithm with ours by simulation. From the simulation results, we have found that our method is effective when a server peer has a low-speed access to the Internet, while the users have a high-speed access.

This paper reports our study of how to gain consistency of states in a ball-game typed Distributed Virtual Environment (DVE) with lag, in peer-to-peer (P2P) architecture. That is, we are studying how to reduce in real-time the difference of states between the participating terminals in a virtual ball game caused by transmission lag or update interval. We are also studying how to control shared objects in real-time in a server-less network architecture. Specifically, a priority field called Allocated Topographical Zone (AtoZ) is used in P2P for DVE. By implementing this function, each terminal can compute which avatar holds the ownership of a shared object by calculating mutually the state of the local avatar predicted by the remote terminals. The region for ownership determined by AtoZ allows an avatar to access and control an object dominantly, so that a geometrical property is dynamically changed depending upon the relative arrangement between the object and avatars. Moreover considering the critical case, defined as inconsistent phenomena between the peers, caused by the network latency, a stricter ownership determination algorithm, called dead zone is introduced. By using these protocols in combination, a robust and effective scheme is achieved for a virtual ball game. As an example of the application, a real-time networked doubles air-hockey is implemented for evaluation of the influence of these protocols on interactivity and on consistency.