Topic 15: Peer-to-Peer and Web Computing

Henrique João L. Domingos, Anne-Marie Kermarrec, Pascal Felber, Márk Jelasity

Abstract: Peer-to-peer (P2P) systems have become a major area of research in the past few years. Their potential was first revealed by the hugely popular P2P file sharing applications, which allow any computer (as a peer), anywhere in a large scale distributed computing environment, to share information and resources with others. The computing environments promoted by P2P systems and technology are decentralized in nature, exploring a symmetric pairwise interaction model. They are self- organized and self-coordinated, dynamically adapted to peer arrivals and departures, and highly resilient to failures. As P2P research becomes more mature, new challenges emerge to support complex and heterogeneous distributed environments for sharing and managing data, resources, and knowledge, with highly volatile and dynamic usage patterns. This topic provides a forum for researchers to present new contributions on P2P technologies, applications, and systems, identifying key research issues and new challenges.