Examining the Tradeoffs of Structured Overlays in a Dynamic Non-Transitive Network
Steven Gerding, Jeremy Stribling · 2003
Although structured peer-to-peer overlays are an increasingly popular area of research, ranges of performance both within a single overlay and between multiple overlays have yet to be fully examined. In particular, the effects of adverse conditions found in real-world networks on overlay performance have not been adequately quantified. In this paper, we present and analyze data extracted from the PlanetLab network, focusing mainly on the presence of churn and non-transitivity, and use this data to drive simulations of several structured peer-to-peer overlays. The protocols we use in our simulations are Chord, Tapestry, Kademlia, and Kelips. For each overlay, we simulate a range of different parameter settings, attempt to illustrate the tradeoffs inherent in parameter choices, and draw comparisons between the different protocols. We explore the performance of these overlays on a simulated PlanetLab topology, with and without the pathological conditions mentioned above. Our results indicate that non-transitivity can have a large effect on the performance of some overlays, while the amount of churn seen on PlanetLab tends to have a less significant impact.