Spiral Walk on Triangular Meshes : Adaptive Replication in Data P2P Networks

We introduce a decentralized replication strategy for peerto-peer file exchange based on exhaustive exploration of the neighborhood of any node in the network. The replication scheme lets the replicas evenly populate the network mesh, while regulating the total number of replicas at the same time. This is achieved by self adaptation to entering or leaving of nodes. Exhaustive exploration is achieved by a spiral walk algorithm that generates a number of messages linearly proportional to the number of visited nodes. It requires a dedicated topology (a triangular mesh on a closed surface). We introduce protocols for node connection and departure that maintain the triangular mesh at low computational and bandwidth cost. Search efficiency is increased using a mechanism based on dynamically allocated super peers. We conclude with a discussion on experimental validation results.