P2P Protocols Research Articles

Peer-To-Peer Networking for Content Distribution and Sharing

Peer-to-peer networking, often known as P2P, enables distributed and decentralized  types of processing, resource sharing, and communication. It has recently proven itself to be a reliable and adaptable technical instrument. Peer-to-peer networking, often known as P2P networking, eliminates the need for centralized  servers or other middlemen by allowing nodes in a network to communicate and share resources directly with one another. This has a number of advantageous effects, such as improved fault tolerance and resistance, improved privacy and security, and a simplified method of resource sharing. Peer-to-peer (P2P) networking has several potential uses outside of distributed computing and social networking, including content delivery and file sharing. Decentralized  P2P networks could be faster, more effective, and more customizable than centralized  ones. This is possible because to the usage of distributed and decentralized  networks. P2P networking, however, presents several difficulties that must be solved. Among these are the possibility of security difficulties, the requirement for efficient administration and management, and the risk of coming across legal and regulatory challenges. Despite the problems mentioned above, P2P networking is anticipated to play a significant role in the development of new technologies and applications. Peer-to-peer networking may become even more effective, safe, and versatile in the not-too-distant future because to advancements in P2P protocols, algorithms, and applications. P2P networking is a technology that should thus be given attention and funding because of its potential to revolutionise how we communicate with one another.

Unsupervised Binary Protocol Clustering Based on Maximum Sequential Patterns

With the rapid development of the Internet, a large number of private protocols emerge on the network. However, some of them are constructed by attackers to avoid being analyzed, posing a threat to computer network security. The blockchain uses the P2P protocol to implement various functions across the network. Furthermore, the P2P protocol format of blockchain may differ from the standard format specification, which leads to sniffing tools such as Wireshark and Fiddler not being able to recognize them. Therefore, the ability to distinguish different types of unknown network protocols is vital for network security. In this paper, we propose an unsupervised clustering algorithm based on maximum frequent sequences for binary protocols, which can distinguish various unknown protocols to provide support for analyzing unknown protocol formats. We mine the maximum frequent sequences of protocol message sets in bytes. And we calculate the fuzzy membership of the protocol message to each maximum frequent sequence, which is based on fuzzy set theory. Then we construct the fuzzy membership vector for each protocol message. Finally, we adopt K-means++ to split different types of protocol messages into several clusters and evaluate the performance by calculating homogeneity, integrity, and Fowlkes and Mallows Index (FMI). Besides, the clustering algorithms based on Needleman–Wunsch and the fixed-length prefix are compared with the algorithm presented in this paper. Compared with these traditional clustering methods, we demonstrate a certain improvement in the clustering performance of our work.

A Multifactor Multilevel and Interaction Based (M2I) Authentication Framework for Internet of Things (IoT) Applications

Existing authentication solutions proposed for Internet of Things (IoT) provide a single Level of Assurance (LoA) regardless of the sensitivity levels of the resources or interactions between IoT devices being protected. For effective (with adequate level of protection) and efficient (with as low overhead costs as possible) protections, it may be desirable to tailor the protection level in response to the sensitivity level of the resources, as a stronger protection level typically imposes a higher level of overhead costs. In this paper, we investigate how to facilitate multi-LoA authentication for IoT by proposing a multi-factor multi-level and interaction based (M2I) authentication framework. The framework implements LoA linked and interaction based authentication. Two interaction modes, P2P (Peer-to-Peer) and O2M (One-to-Many), are investigated via the design of two corresponding protocols. Evaluation results show that adopting the O2M interaction mode in authentication in the related use-case scenarios can cut communication cost significantly; compared with that of the Kerberos protocol, the O2M protocol reduces the communication cost by 42%~45%. The protocols are also more efficient. The P2P and O2M protocol, respectively, reduce the computational cost by 70%~72% and 81%~82%, in comparison with that of Kerberos. The evaluation results also show that the two-factor authentication option costs twice as much as that of the one-factor option.

SoK: Network-Level Attacks on the Bitcoin P2P Network

Over the last decade, Bitcoin has revolutionized the global economic and technological landscape, inspiring a new generation of blockchain-based technologies. Its protocol is today among the most influential for cryptocurrencies and distributed networks. In particular, the P2P layer represents a reference point for all permissionless blockchains, which often implement its solutions in their network layer. Unfortunately, the Bitcoin network protocol lacks a strong security model, leaving it exposed to several threats. Attacks at this level can affect the reliability and trustworthiness of the consensus layer, mining the credibility of the whole system. It is therefore of utmost importance to properly understand and address the security of the Bitcoin P2P protocol. In this paper, we give a comprehensive and detailed overview of known network-level attacks in Bitcoin, as well as the countermeasures that have been implemented in the protocol. We propose a generic network adversary model, and propose an objective-based taxonomy of the attacks. Finally, we identify the core weaknesses of the protocol and study the relationship between different types of attack. We believe our contribution can help both new and experienced researchers have a broader and deeper understanding of the Bitcoin P2P network and its threats, and allow for a better modeling of its security properties.

A three-dimensional clustered peer-to-peer overlay protocol for mobile ad hoc networks

Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing involves exchanging resources and files by computers connected through a network rather than a central server. In P2P, over mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), the fundamental necessity is the linkage of the overlay participating peers (OPPs) for the efficient operation of the DHT-based P2P overlay protocol over MANETs. This necessity becomes more critical in a high mobility environment. Due to the high mobility of OPPs, the topology of the P2P overlay is altered continuously. Consequently, the efficiency of DHT-based P2P overlay protocol over MANETs greatly decreases due to the increased lookup latency, maintenance, computational, and control overheads. In the current research, a novel three-dimensional clustered overlay P2P protocol, i.e., 3DCOP, is suggested to cope with the identified issues. Simulation results depict that 3DCOP performs better in routing overhead, false-negative ratio, path-stretch ratio, and file discovery delay in the high mobility environment over MANETs.

Decentralizing indexing and bootstrapping for online applications

Peer‐to‐peer (P2P) networks utilize centralized entities (trackers) to assist peers in finding and exchanging information. Although modern P2P protocols are now trackerless and their function relies on distributed hash tables (DHTs), centralized entities are still needed to build file indices (indexing) and assist users in joining DHT swarms (bootstrapping). Although the functionality of these centralized entities are limited, every peer in the network is expected to trust them to function as expected (e.g. to correctly index new files). In this work, a new approach for designing and building decentralized online applications is proposed by introducing DIBDApp. The approach combines blockchain, smart contracts and BitTorrent for building up a combined technology that permits to create decentralized applications that do not require any assistance from centralized entities. DIBDApp is a software library composed of Ethereum smart contracts and an API to the BitTorrent protocol that fully decentralizes indexing, bootstrapping and file storing. DIBDApp enables any peer to seamlessly connect to the designed smart contracts via the Web3J protocol. Extensive experimentation on the Rinkeby Ethereum testnet shows that applications built using the DIBDApp library can perform the same operations as in traditional back‐end architectures with a gas cost of a few USD cents.

A Framework for Multi-Hop Ad-Hoc Networking over Wi-Fi Direct with Android Smart Devices

The wide diffusion of mobile devices that natively support ad hoc communication technologies has led to several protocols for enabling and optimizing Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs). Nevertheless, the actual utilization of MANETs in real life seems limited due to the lack of protocols for the automatic creation and evolution of ad hoc networks. Recently, a novel P2P protocol named Wi-Fi Direct has been proposed and standardized by the Wi-Fi Alliance to facilitate nearby devices’ interconnection. Wi-Fi Direct provides high-performance direct communication among devices, includes different energy management mechanisms, and is now available in most Android mobile devices. However, the current implementation of Wi-Fi Direct on Android has several limitations, making the Wi-Fi Direct network only be a one-hop ad-hoc network. This paper aims to develop a new framework for multi-hop ad hoc networking using Wi-Fi Direct in Android smart devices. The framework includes a connection establishment protocol and a group management protocol. Simulations validate the proposed framework on the OMNeT++ simulator. We analyzed the framework by varying transmission range, number of hops, and buffer size. The results indicate that the framework provides an eventual 100% packet delivery for different transmission ranges and hop count values. The buffer size has enough space for all packets. However, as buffer size decreases, the packet delivery decreases proportionally.

Analysis and modelling the effects of mobility, Churn rate, node’s life span, intermittent bandwidth and stabilization cost of finger table in structured mobile P2P networks

Today P2P (Peer-to-Peer) networks are gaining popularity for sharing the contents. Due to massive spreading of Internet, these networks are also growing fast. MP2P (Mobile P2P) networks are attracting many users due to increase in the Internet-based mobile applications. These networks suffer from many challenges which are not considered for analysis and modelling adequately. We focus on few challenges like mobility of users, churn rate, intermittent bandwidth, shorter life span of mobile nodes, stabilization of finger table, etc. in this paper. We analytically analyse these challenges and define the effects of different parameters over the performance. Traditional P2P protocols are designed for wired networks and when these are implemented for mobile networks then mobility effect of users adds more challenge for researchers. We select two types of mobility models namely FF (Fluid Flow) and RWP (Random Waypoint) models to model the users’ mobility. The churn rate of the mobile nodes makes network overlay management and content searching more difficult in MP2P networks. We select finger table-based protocols which are widely deployed in the P2P networks. But these protocols can’t perform well in the mobile P2P networks due to mobility of the users. The mobility of the users and churn rate of the mobile nodes create failure in lookup of finger table and induce more cost to update the finger table. We consider these challenges and quantify the failure rate of mobile nodes, life span of mobile nodes, available bandwidth, cost of stabilization of finger table per node, etc. in this proposal. The proposed model is useful for modelling the performance of MP2P networks performance in various wireless environments like Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs), Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs), Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANETs), Wireless LAN (WLAN), Wireless MAN (WMAN), etc.

Research onC/SProtocol and P2PProtocol in Wireless Communication

This paper mainly studies how the two communication protocols c/s protocol and p2p protocol are implemented and applied in the communication system. The traditional c/s protocol and p2p protocol are two widely used communication protocols. This paper studies how these two communication systems are implemented, and imagines how the two protocols work together. This paper first studies the development and characteristics of the two protocols, and then studies the structure of the two communication systems separately, how to implement the two communication systems separately and explore how to apply them in practice.

Study on P2P Service Bearer Method for Passive Optical Network for Long Distance and Wide Access

Abstract For the effective bearer of P2P-type services, a P2P service bearer reorientation method for passive optical network for long-distance wide access based on P2P protocol message and wire-speed message identification is proposed. However, the reorientation method still has the possibility of relocation failure, so it is modified – that is, an improved P2P service bearer reorientation method based on optical line terminal (OLT) and optical network unit (ONU) cooperation. And the tool NS2 is used for network simulation analysis. Through simulation analysis, it is verified that the modified reorientation method improves the data traffic burden at the core network and at the OLT.

Next level peer-to-peer overlay networks under high churns: a survey

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) technology has seen a remarkable progress due to its decentralized and distributed approach. A wide range of applications such as social networking, file sharing, long range interpersonal communication etc. are carried out with ease by employing P2P protocol candidates. There exists a huge span of such P2P protocols. In this paper, we review advanced protocols like ZeroNet, Dat, Ares Galaxy, Accordion etc. evolved from classic peer-to-peer (P2P) overlay networks. We utilize term classic to allude protocols like Chord, Pastry, Tapestry, Kademlia, BitTorrent, Gnutella, Gia, NICE etc. While coming to their design, several challenges existed with classic approach under high churn environment with growing network communication rate. To address these multifaceted network issues with classic P2P systems, novel approaches evolved which helped researchers to built new application layer networks on existing P2P networks. We contribute in this paper by systematically characterizing next-level P2P (NL P2P) and examining their key concepts. Arrangement of distributed networks is completed by numerous analysts, which incorporates classic P2P systems. In this work, we therefore aim to make a further stride by deliberately talking about protocols created from classic P2P systems, and their performance comparison in dynamically changing environment. Different aspects of P2P overlay frameworks like routing, security, query, adaptation to non-critical failure and so forth dependent on developed conventions are additionally examined. Further, based on our review and study we put forward some of the exploring challenges with NL P2P frameworks.

Design and Implementation of a Narrow-Band Intersatellite Network with Limited Onboard Resources for IoT.

Satellite networks are inevitable for the ubiquitous connectivity of M2M (machine to machine) and IoT (internet of things) devices. Advances in the miniaturization of satellite technology make networks in LEO (Low Earth Orbit) predestined to serve as a backhaul for narrow-band M2M communication. To reduce latency and increase network responsivity, intersatellite link capability among nodes is a key component in satellite design. The miniaturization of nodes to enable the economical deployment of large networks is also crucial. Thus, this article addresses these key issues and presents a design methodology and implementation of an adaptive network architecture considering highly limited resources, as is the case in a nanosatellite (≈10 kg) network. Potentially applicable multiple access techniques are evaluated. The results show that a time division duplex scheme with session-oriented P2P (point to point) protocols in the data link layer is more suitable for limited resources. Furthermore, an applicable layer model is defined and a protocol implementation is outlined. To demonstrate the technical feasibility of a nanosatellite-based communication network, the S-NET (S band network with nanosatellites) mission has been developed, which consists of four nanosatellites, to demonstrate multi-point crosslink with 100 kbps data rates over distances up to 400 km and optimized communication protocols, pushing the technological boundaries of nanosatellites. The flight results of S-NET prove the feasibility of these nanosatellites as a space-based M2M backhaul.

Mobility Pattern Based Chord (MP-Chord) for Enhanced Lookup Performance in Mobile P2P Networks

The peer-to-peer (P2P) systems are mainly designed for wired networks. These networks suffer from many challenges like malicious content distribution, free riding, whitewashing, poor search scalability, lack of a robust trust model, etc. The churn of the nodes makes topology management and searching resource more puzzling. When P2P protocols are implemented for mobile networks, it adds more challenges, specially the mobility management of the mobile users, intermittent connection, and limited bandwidth. Chord based protocols are widely deployed in the P2P networks but Chord can’t perform well in the mobile P2P networks due to mobility of the users. The frequent join and depart of the mobile users creates Chord lookup failure and induces more cost to maintain the finger table. The mobility pattern of the mobile users can be considered to enhance of the Chord lookup performance for mobile P2P networks. It has been observed that most of the mobile users in the urban cities follow fixed mobility pattern which can be utilized to enhance the Chord performance. We have proposed a Mobility Pattern based Chord (MP-Chord) scheme for structured mobile P2P networks. We have presented analytical modelling and performance analysis of the proposed scheme and existing schemes and found that the proposed scheme performs better than the existing Chord-based schemes for mobile P2P networks.

On the resilience of P2P botnet footprints in the presence of legitimate P2P traffic

SummaryBotnet is a distributed platform for illegal activities severely threaten the security of the Internet. Fortunately, although their complicated nature, bots leave some footprints during the C&C communication that have been utilized by security researchers to design detection mechanisms. Nevertheless, botnet designers are always trying to evade detection systems by leveraging the legitimate P2P protocol as C&C channel or even mimicking legitimate peer‐to‐peer (P2P) behavior. Consequently, detecting P2P botnet in the presence of normal P2P traffic is one of the most challenging issues in network security. However, the resilience of P2P botnet detection systems in the presence of normal P2P traffic is not investigated in most proposed schemes. In this paper, we focused on the footprint as the most essential part of a detection system and presented a taxonomy of footprints utilized in behavioral P2P botnet detection systems. Then, the resilience of mentioned footprints is analyzed using three evaluation scenarios. Our experimental and analytical investigations indicated that the most P2P botnet footprints are not resilient to the presence of legitimate P2P traffic and there is a pressing need to introduce more resilient footprints.

Blockchain-based reputation management for custom manufacturing service in the peer-to-peer networking environment

Blockchain enables users to be autonomous without the need of trust by using a digital ledger of decentralized consensus. Blockchain-based IoT allows service providers to transfer the security and maintenance responsibility to self-maintaining customers. Adopting peer-to-peer (P2P) networking and computing for more than billions of transactions can reduce the costs arising from the installation and maintenance of centralized systems. Small manufacturers providing industrial IoT (IIoT) services can participate more actively in blockchain-based IIoT applications with three-dimensional printing and digital manufacturing technologies, but the measure to maintain privacy on a blockchain is not robust. Here, we propose a P2P networking-based custom manufacturing service, which is an order-driven trading service between a manufacturer and a customer in the blockchain-based IIoT architecture. The proposed system consists of reputation management and service architecture. We propose a new reputation assessment method customized to increase the reliability and accuracy of industrial manufacturing systems. We also propose a manufacturer rating classification to guide the customers’ decision making in a reliable manner and a malicious evaluator identification to exclude feedbacks from malicious evaluators. The proposed service architecture is composed of trustless P2P protocols designed for preserving privacy and providing non-repudiation. We used a cryptographic algorithm for ensuring transaction privacy and the digital signing of blockchain for non-repudiation. We also analyzed the proposed service architecture and the possible attack scenarios to verify the security requirements. We verified that the reputation management system was influenced by each feedback dynamically and guided the customer’s present decision making with reliable and classified manners, by simulating reputation classification and malicious evaluator identification. Further, we have summarized the originality and the characteristics of the proposed approach by comparing closely related studies and concluded with a future research guide.

Reputation based approach for improved fairness and robustness in P2P protocols

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) overlay networks have gained popularity due to their robustness, cost advantage, network efficiency and openness. Unfortunately, the same properties that foster their success, also make them prone to several attacks. To mitigate these attacks, several scalable security mechanisms which are based on the concepts of trust and reputation have been proposed. These proposed methods tend to ignore some core practical requirements that are essential to make them more useful in the real world. Some of such requirements include efficient bootstrapping of each newcomer’s reputation, and mitigating seeder(s) exploitation. Additionally, although interaction among participating peers is usually the bases for reputation, the importance given to the frequency of interaction between the peers is often minimized or ignored. This can result in situations where barely known peers end-up having similar trust scores to the well-known and consistently cooperative nodes. After a careful review of the literature, this work proposes a novel and scalable reputation based security mechanism that addresses the aforementioned problems. The new method offers more efficient reputation bootstrapping, mitigation of bandwidth attack and better management of interaction rate, which further leads to improved fairness. To evaluate its performance, the new reputation model has been implemented as an extension of the BitTorrent protocol. Its robustness was tested by exposing it to popular malicious behaviors in a series of extensive PeerSim simulations. Results show that the proposed method is very robust and can efficiently mitigate popular attacks on P2P overlay networks.

MeNTor: A wireless-mesh-network-aware data dissemination overlay based on BitTorrent

IEEE 802.11s introduces MAC-layer extensions to enable vendor-independent and inter-operable WLAN mesh networks. Featuring automatic device interconnection and routing, 802.11s networks provide a higher scalability, flexibility, and robustness compared to common centralized WLAN infrastructures. As logical Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks exhibit many of the characteristics of physical WLAN mesh networks on the application layer, it is obvious to consider solutions where both technologies interact to leverage robust distributed wireless applications, such as collaborative data distribution and synchronization in future smart cities. Envisioned scenarios include the administration and update deployment to specific device groups or the distributed caching and delivery of on-demand multi-media content to selected end points within a city-area wireless mesh network. Nevertheless, common P2P protocols, such as BitTorrent (BT), do not consider the structure of the physical underlay as they were primarily designed to be used over wired communication networks, such as large parts of the Internet. Hence, the default BT peer selection mechanism does not adapt to the network topology and varying medium utilization in wireless multi-hop networks. We present MeNTor, a set of optimizations to enable underlay-aware BT peer selection in WLAN mesh networks. It relies on cross-layer integration of default 802.11s information, only requiring minor extension of the BT application layer without introducing any MAC-layer modifications or traffic overhead. Our solution was evaluated in a 25-node real-world mesh test bed, using 10 different seed/leecher placements and comparing 18 parameter combination variants of MeNTor. Results show that average download times can be reduced by 30–40%, depending on the seed/leecher placement and parameter combination variant. Finally, we recommend the variant that performed best across all scenarios as prospective default configuration.

Sensor Networks for Monitoring Metro-de-Medellín System Infrastructure

Structural health monitoring systems rely on electronic instrumentation and telemetry for improving maintenance tasks, preventing catastrophic failures and following the behavior of critical variables for infrastructure works such as tunnels, highways, bridges and buildings. A proposal for the development of sensor networks for monitoring Metro-de-Medellín system infrastructure is presented. The adopted approach is based on the deployment of generic sensing units that can operate either individually or by constituting wireless personal area networks un-der the MiWi P2P protocol from Microchip. Different transceivers can be added to monitoring units that can act as gateways in order to allow collected data reach other networks, ranging from local area to metropolitan area coverage. Several sensors, digital and analog, can be attached to the generic units depending on the particular requirements of specific situations and monitoring locations. The results obtained from performed tests and the options considered for graphical user interfaces are also presented.Keywords: MiWi Protocol, Structural Health Monitoring, Short Data Service, Terrestrial Trunked Radio, Wireless Sensor Networks.

An End to End users two way authenticated double encrypted messaging scheme based on Hybrid RSA for the Future Internet Architectures

In future internet architectures, end-to-end (E2E) secured personal messaging is essential. So here an E2E user two-way authenticated double encrypted messaging architecture based on hybrid RSA for private messaging is proposed. Our P2P protocol works over TCP protocol for creating direct connections in between, with IPv4 broadcast options to discover peers on the same LAN. Our protocol implements perfect forward secrecy using Diffie-Hellman key exchange with renegotiation capability in every session with optimal asymmetric encryption padding and random salts. For making hybrid RSA with double encryption, in encryption level, main RSA is integrated with efficient RSA to give more statistical complexity. In the decryption process, the CRT is used for very high efficiency with integration with shared RSA. Our architecture also gives a hassle-free, secure, peer-to-peer, strong and reliable platform with E2E encryption for private messaging and it can also work with future internet architectures.

Comparative Analysis of P2P Architectures for Energy Trading and Sharing

Rising awareness and emergence of smart technologies have inspired new thinking in energy system management. Whilst integration of distributed energy resources in micro-grids (MGs) has become the technique of choice for consumers to generate their energy, it also provides a unique opportunity to explore energy trading and sharing amongst them. This paper investigates peer-to-peer (P2P) communication architectures for prosumers’ energy trading and sharing. The performances of common P2P protocols are evaluated under the stringent communication requirements of energy networks defined in IEEE 1547.3-2007. Simulation results show that the structured P2P protocol exhibits a reliability of 99.997% in peer discovery and message delivery whilst the unstructured P2P protocol yields 98%, both of which are consistent with the requirements of MG applications. These two architectures exhibit high scalability with a latency of 0.5 s at a relatively low bandwidth consumption, thus, showing promising potential in their adoption for prosumer to prosumer communication.