Ad hoc, self-supervising peer-to-peer search networks (Extended version)

Peer-to-peer search networks are a popular and widely deployed means of searching massively distributed digital object repositories. Unfortunately, as such networks grow, peers may become overloaded processing messages from other peers. We examine how to reduce the load on nodes in P2P networks by allowing them to self-organize into a relatively efficient network, and then self-tune to make the network even more efficient. By replacing fixed rules with dynamic local decision-making, such ``self-supervising'' networks can better adjust to network conditions. Our results indicate that our ad hoc networks are more efficient than popular supernode topologies for several important scenarios. We also examine the fault tolerance and search latency of ad hoc networks.