Course abstract

This course will discuss about the concepts and architecture of peer to peer networks. These systems are built as an overlay on the existing Internet. The idea is basically to build the collaboration between user machines to implement services like telephony, distribute resilient file system, messaging system and other collaborative computing services. Such systems do not require server or need them in very limited fashion. The course will discuss at length the various DHT algorithms and their implementation complexities, the mechanisms to implement resilience using replication factor, efficiency of storage using universal file system where sharing the content does not create additional copies, mechanisms to ensure that nodes with different storage capacities can be used. Further architecture of Briahaspati4 an ongoing p2p system opensource project will also be discussed. The basics taught here will form the foundation of formation of user cloud systems.