Distributed cooperative mechanism for overlay networks

Overlay networks are becoming increasingly important to support a variety of applications without requiring significant changes to the substrate network architecture (e.g., the Internet architecture). In supporting applications using overlay networks, there are two key technical challenges: (1) efficient discovery of objects (e.g., files, software components or computational resources) distributed in an overlay network and (2) efficient allocation of resources (e.g., link bandwidth) on an underlying substrate network to overlay networks. This dissertation proposes solutions for each technical challenge.;First, this dissertation explains a novel discovery mechanism using user preference for objects. The proposed mechanism allows query originators to return their feedback that describes the degree of the preference for discovered objects. The returned preference information is stored at nodes and utilized to decide where to forward subsequent queries. Through guiding a query using the preference information stored at nodes, the proposed mechanism can selectively locate objects preferred by query originators in an efficient manner.;Second, this dissertation explains a novel decentralized network architecture that allocates resources on a substrate network to overlay networks deployed atop using a market-based mechanism. In the proposed architecture, a substrate network prices resources, and an overlay network provider purchases resources from a substrate network to configure itself with sufficient resources at a minimum cost to meet its requirements. The proposed architecture also allows an overlay network provider to purchase resources from other overlay network providers when the resources are not available in a substrate network. Through employing such a market concept, the proposed architecture achieves fair and efficient resource allocation in a decentralized manner.;The proposed discovery mechanism and resource allocation architecture are investigated through extensive simulation experiments. The obtained simulation results demonstrate validity of the proposed discovery mechanism and resource allocation architecture.;Index Terms---Distributed, Adaptive, Discovery, Peer-to-Peer, Market, Pricing, Resource allocation, Efficient...