Evaluating the accuracy of captured snapshots by Peer-to-Peer crawlers

Abstract

The increasing popularity of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks has led to growing interest in characterizing their topology and dynamics [1, 2, 3, 4], essential for proper design and effective evaluation. A common technique is to capture topology snapshots using a crawler. However, previous studies have not verified the accuracy of their captured snapshots. We present techniques to measure the inaccuracy of topology snapshots, quantify the effects of unreachable peers and crawling speed, and explore the impact of snapshot accuracy on derived characterizations. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.