Lydick, Adam
 

DISTRIBUTED INDEXING IN A PEER-TO-PEER ENVIRONMENT

Adam Lydick
Advisor: Dean Brock
Department of Computer Science, UNCA

 
One of the greatest challenges in peer-to-peer networking is creating an effective means of searching for content. Early solutions to this problem have included: using a centralized server to hold the index and conduct searches, using a system of ?recursive broadcasts?, in various forms, to query a significant portion of the network, and finally removing indexing capabilities from the network entirely. None of these systems are acceptable over the long-term: Indexing capabilities are essential for a successful peer-to-peer network and existing systems break down once the network reaches a certain size. By distributing index information over a large number of peers, in a very specific and redundant manner, it becomes possible to create a searchable index that will continue to function efficiently as the size of the network increases.