Efficient Range Indexing in DHT-Based Peer-to-Peer Networks

A fundamental problem of peer-to-peer (P2P) systems is efficiently locating a node that stores a desired data item. Distributed hash table (DHT) mechanisms have been proposed to address this problem and manage data in very large, structured P2P systems. DHT algorithms provide efficient exact match object search capabilities without requiring global indexing and are hence extremely scalable. However, supporting range queries efficiently remains a difficult problem. In this paper, we describe an extension to a currently available DHT implementation, in order to support range queries and at the same time preserve the important attributes of P2P systems.