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Understanding Churn in Decentralized Peer-to-Peer Networks

This dissertation presents a novel modeling framework for understanding the dynamics
of peer-to-peer (P2P) networks under churn (i.e., random user arrival/departure)
and designing systems more resilient against node failure. The proposed models are
applicable to general distributed systems under a variety of conditions on graph construction
and user lifetimes.
The foundation of this work is a new churn model that describes user arrival and
departure as a superposition of many periodic (renewal) processes. It not only allows
general (non-exponential) user lifetime distributions, but also captures heterogeneous
behavior of peers. We utilize this model to analyze link dynamics and the ability
of the system to stay connected under churn. Our results offers exact computation
of user-isolation and graph-partitioning probabilities for any monotone lifetime distribution,
including heavy-tailed cases found in real systems. We also propose an
age-proportional random-walk algorithm for creating links in unstructured P2P networks
that achieves zero isolation probability as system size becomes infinite. We
additionally obtain many insightful results on the transient distribution of in-degree,
edge arrival process, system size, and lifetimes of live users as simple functions of the
aggregate lifetime distribution.
The second half of this work studies churn in structured P2P networks that are
usually built upon distributed hash tables (DHTs). Users in DHTs maintain two types of neighbor sets: routing tables and successor/leaf sets. The former tables determine
link lifetimes and routing performance of the system, while the latter are built for
ensuring DHT consistency and connectivity. Our first result in this area proves that
robustness of DHTs is mainly determined by zone size of selected neighbors, which
leads us to propose a min-zone algorithm that significantly reduces link churn in
DHTs. Our second result uses the Chen-Stein method to understand concurrent
failures among strongly dependent successor sets of many DHTs and finds an optimal
stabilization strategy for keeping Chord connected under churn.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2009-08-906
Date2009 August 1900
CreatorsYao, Zhongmei
ContributorsLoguinov, Dmitri
Source SetsTexas A and M University
Languageen_US
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeBook, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text
Formatapplication/pdf

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