Designing a Super-Peer Network

A super-peer is a node in a peer-to-peer network that operates both as a server to a set of clients, and as an equal in a network of super-peers. Super-peer networks strike a balance between the inherent efficiency of centralized search, and the autonomy, load balancing and robustness to attacks provided by distributed search. Furthermore, they take advantage of the heterogeneity of capabilities (e.g., bandwidth, processing power) across peers, which recent studies have shown to be enormous. Hence, new and old P2P systems like Morpheus and Gnutella are adopting super-peers in their design. Despite their growing popularity, the behavior of super-peer networks is not well understood. For example, what are the potential drawbacks of super-peer networks? How can superpeers be made more reliable? How many clients should a superpeer take on to maximize efficiency? In this paper we examine super-peer networks in detail, gaining an understanding of their fundamental characteristics and performance tradeoffs. We also present practical guidelines and a general procedure for the design of an efficient super-peer network.