An Enhanced Random-walk Method for Content Locating in P2P Networks

The important problem of content location in an unstructured distributed network (such as P2P, with no central searching system, graph construction control or file placement regulation) is addressed. The existing methods that are based on either flooding or random walk impose a large traffic load on the network or require a long time to search. In this work, we propose a method that outperforms the existing methods in both of these measures. These advantages are achieved by publishing traces of the contents of each node in its nearby nodes, so that the closer nodes to the target have a stronger trace of it. Such traces are used to rapidly locate the desired content. The superb performance of our method, both in time and bandwidth, is demonstrated by simulations whose results are reported.