Beyond anarchy: Self‐organized topology for peer‐to‐peer networks

Abstract

AbstractIn this article, we discuss the new constraints that will apply to future, highly dynamic networks and investigate one of the major problems that is likely to affect their deployment: traffic/workload distribution. Starting with a very simple model, we demonstrate that a structure made of undifferentiated subunits will almost inevitably hit a scalability barrier, unless new design rules are applied. We then give quantitative evidence that a hybrid network topology termed the “hypergrid” could have the potential of solving some of the most critical problems (relay overload and network vulnerability), yet could still be produced by applying local rules only. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 9: 49–53, 2004