An effective pointer replication algorithm in P2P networks

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks have proven to be an efficient and successful mechanism for file sharing over the Internet. However, current P2P protocols have long worst case query latencies which prevents them from be employed for real time applications. Popularity of objects in these networks can change rapidly and augurs the need for a rapid and lightweight content replication strategy to reduce search and data-access latencies. In this paper, we propose an on-line pointer replication (OPR) algorithm in structured P2P networks which yields a significantly low worst case query latency. Also, the degree of replication achieved by OPR is dynamically adaptable to the instantaneous query arrival rate and churn characteristics of the system in order to reduce total control traffic. We evaluate and compare different replica placement strategies on the PlanetLab network as well as with simulations. Experimental results show that OPR outperforms the existing replica placement algorithms by at least 30% in average latency and around 40% in terms of maximum query latency.