Bootstrapping P2P Overlays in MANETs

Peer-to-peer networks are very popular but the problem of bootstrapping them has largely been ignored. In a fully decentralized environment such as a mobile ad hoc network (MANET) the usual bootstrapping solutions, which typically require a centralized service, are not possible. We present a method of bootstrapping P2P overlay networks running on MANETs which involves multicasting P2P overlay join queries and responses, and caching results at all nodes. Node choose which overlay members to join to based on a utility function that considers both the distance in hops and the overlay neighbors´ available energy. Simulation results show that the P2P overlay can closely reflect the underlying top.ology, which reduces energy consumption, that caching the join requests reduces the number of messages required to join the overlay, and that compared to Random Address Probing, there is less overhead and significantly less delay.