Service Authenticity in P2P File-Sharing

The open and autonomous nature of peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing invites the phenomenon of widespread decoys and free-riding. Reputation systems are introduced to assure data authenticity and to stimulate collaboration. We argue that, in a reputation-aided P2P file-sharing system, the faithful delivery of an authentic file depends on the authenticity of the file, its reputation (either the objective reputation of itself or the subjective reputation of its providing peer) and its index. Hence, we propose to add integrity control for the reputation and indexing storage/computation processing to enhance the authenticity of the resultant reputation values and service indexes. An integrity model is presented to articulate necessary mechanisms and rules for integrity protection. The existing proposals for P2P reputation and indexing are analyzed, accordingly.