Experience with a physics-style approach for the study of self properties in structured overlay networks

This paper gives a brief summary of our experience in applying a physics-style approach for analyzing the behavior of structured overlay networks that deploy self-organization and self-repair policies. Such systems are not always simple to model analytically and simulation of scales of interest can be prohibitive. Physicists deal with scale by characterizing a system using intensive variables, i.e. variables that are size independent. The approach proved its substantial usefulness when applied to satisfiability theory and it is the hope that it can be as useful in the field of large-scale distributed systems. We report here our finding of one simple selforganization-related intensive variable, and a more complex self-repair-related intensive variable.