A hybrid topology architecture for P2P systems

A core area of P2P systems research is the topology of the overlay network. It has ranged from random unstructured networks like Gnutella to Super-Peer architectures to the recent trend of structured overlays based on distributed hash tables (DHTs) (I. Stoica et al., 2001), (A. Rowstron et al., 2001), (S. Ratnasamy et al., 2001). While the unstructured networks have excessive lookup costs and un-guaranteed lookups, the structured systems offer no anonymity and delegate control over data items to unrelated peers. In this paper, we present an in-the-middle hybrid architecture which uses a mix of both topologies to create a decentralized P2P infrastructure. The system provides scalable and guaranteed lookups in addition to mutual anonymity and also allows hosting content with the content-owner. We validate our architecture through a thorough analytical and performance analysis of the system