Multidimensional information retrieval in peer-to-peer networks

This paper summarizes a key finding in our NSF project CNS-0615055/0753066. The project is aimed at development and implementation of a complete architectural design for information retrieval in decentralized networks. In this paper, we particularly focus on two main components: the communication architecture and the indexing architecture. The communication component serves as the foundation for the nodes to maintain connectivity in the system, while the indexing component prepares the information in a way that enables fast and efficient future search operations. A challenge is to overcome the curse of dimensionality. From both network and database perspectives, decentralized networks are complex; not only we have to accommodate the rapid growth of the network size, but also the multi-dimensionality of the data space. We describe our solution in the context of P2P networks, but it is also applicable to any Internet-based decentralized networks.