Research On Universal Computing Platform For P2P Networks

In this paper, we present TIPMAN, a Topology-independent and Device-independent Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Universal Computing Platform(UCP for short). P2P middleware provides an abstraction between the application and the underlying network by providing higher-level functionality such as distributed P2P searches and direct communication among peers.P2P networks build an overlay network, a network on the network. The central idea of this dissertation is to apply the well-established ISO OSI layered model on P2P middlewaresystems. A layered P2P architecture helps to identify separate parts of a complex system,allows changes to the system without affecting other layers and makes maintenance easier due to modularization. The main advantages of having such a layered P2P middleware are:independence from the underlying network and the P2P topology.This dissertation proposes a Universal P2P Computing Platform consisting of four layers: the Communication Layer, the Processing Layer, the P2P Network Layer and the Application Layer. The Communication Layer(which can be compared to the Physical Layer of the OSI model) is responsible for providingan abstraction to the network primitives provided by operating systems or libraries. This makes TIPMAN independent from the underlying network protocols and the devices and allows TIPMAN to run on heterogeneous devices. The Processing Layer (an analogy to the Data Linklayer) provides an error free connection to remote peers and allows additional services to be plugged in. The P2P Network Layer comprises the routing algorithm, thus describes the topology (or structure) of the P2P network, The Application Layer act as the interface between user applications and TIPMAN UCP.TIPMAN UCP has a pluggable architecture that allows different components to be plugged in based on the requirements of an application, the capabilities of the device the application is running on, the number of peers involved, etc. Custom-tailored P2P UCP can be constructed, thus, increasing the flexibility of communication architectures that are built upon it. Applications that use TIPMAN are provided an API that is not affected whenever the underlying topology has to be changed or adapted.In order to test TIPMAN, we have developed a simple application based on TIPMAN UCP and build a distributed P2P network test bed make use of JDF(JXTA Distributed Framework), it is possible to simulate a P2P network of virtual peers on a...