On the Construction of a Super-Peer Topology underneath Middleware for Distributed Computing

Scalability constitutes a key property of Peer-to-Peer overlay networks. Recent advances that improve scalability include super-peer infrastructures and network coordinates. As an integral part of an upcoming middleware for distributed computing, we have developed a mechanism that builds and maintains a super-peer overlay network in a decentralized, self-organized way, using network coordinates to facilitate inter-peer distance estimation. We discuss the benefits of super-peer infrastructures in the context of Desktop Grids and present the outcome of experiments conducted on PlanetLab to observe the constructed topology´s behavior in a practical environment.