Attacks on correlated peer-to-peer networks: An analytical study

Analysis of attacks on real-world p2p networks and their impact on the topology of the network is difficult as the interconnections among the peers are not random; rather they evolve based on the needs of the connected peers and this brings in degree-degree correlation in the network. We develop an analytical framework to analyze the change in topology of a correlated network and propose a generalized model based on percolation theory to measure the resilience of a correlated network against any arbitrary attack. We present the results and analysis mainly on correlated superpeer networks and correlated bimodal networks. Some of the intricate questions on the stability of real-world superpeer network that we answer analytically are: (a) dependence of percolation threshold of a superpeer network on its peer degree, superpeer degree at different levels of degree-degree correlation (b) minimum peer degree required to make a superpeer topology more resilient. All our theoretical results are validated through simulations and the results are in very good agreement.