THUP: A P2P Network Robust to Churn and DoS Attack Based on Bimodal Degree Distribution

Hierarchical unstructured peer-to-peer (P2P) networks for file sharing systems such as Gnutella and Kazaa have made a tremendous achievement in the last decade. However, while these P2P networks can be tolerant to churn, i.e., the dynamics of peer participation and departure (or fault), there still remains the issue of vulnerability to Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, i.e., when the highest degree peers are removed. In order to overcome this shortcoming, we focus on a bimodal degree distribution, which is tolerant to both churn and DoS attacks. However, the network topology affects the network stability that was not taken into considered in the previous works. Therefore, we analyze the optimal network topology for DoS attack tolerance, and accordingly develop the peer joining procedure to construct and maintain the proposed network topology. Our proposed scheme is dubbed THUP (churn/DoS Tolerant, Hierarchical, Unstructured, P2P network). Performance evaluation conducted through computer simulations shows that THUP substantially improves the stability and communication efficiency compared with other existing P2P networking structures.