TIGRAS: A Topology-Independent Gradient Search Approach for Peer-to-Peer Key Look Up

In this work, we present a topology-independent gradient search method for key look up in P2p networks. The approach is inspired in the way ants perceive chemical gradients in their environment to search for food. In our method, a gradient of estimated distances to target keys is created in the network through the propagation of summarized information on contents of peers. During a search, mobile software agents use that gradient field to locate the network node hosting the target key.