A Credit Mechanism Based on Automatic Audit in P2P File Sharing Systems

Peer-to-peer (P2P) network provides an efficient way for resource sharing. However, due to lacking centralized control, free-riding phenomenon becomes a serious problem in P2P network, especially in P2P file-sharing network. This heavily restricts the development of P2P file-sharing systems. Most existing approaches need the manual intervention, such as providing credit scores. This paper proposes a credit mechanism based on automatic audit, which captures malicious behaviors through automatic detection. In this mechanism, peers can detect malicious acts spontaneously without human intervention. The simulation experiments are carried out to evaluate the performance and validity of the credit mechanism in a P2P file-sharing system. The result shows that it is effective to prevent the malicious actions in P2P network.