Adaptive Management of Communities Based on Peer Content and Reputation

Most P2P file-sharing systems are unable to create self- organizing communities of similar nodes that provide good services to their members. In this paper, we propose a Gnutella-like file-sharing protocol based on the premise that each peer only creates links with the best counterparts which the peer has discovered in the network. Termed adaptive Gnutella protocol (AGP), our proposal transforms the overlay topology based on a reputation scheme that evaluates the provided services and offers a mechanism that organizes trusted nodes with similar content. We have implemented the AGP protocol using the PeerSim engine and conducted experiments on diverse network topologies. Over time, the network topology improves as every peer locates counterparts with similar content and good reputation. Moreover, malicious nodes are pushed to the edge of the overlay network and are excluded from participating in the AGP search.