A secure and efficient searching scheme for trusted nodes in a peer-to-peer network

Abstract

The existing search mechanisms for peer-to-peer (P2P) networks have several problems such as fake content distribution, free riding, white-washing and poor search scalability. Although, researchers have proposed several trust management and semantic community-based mechanisms for combating free riding and distribution of malicious contents, most of these schemes lack scalability due to their high computational, communication and storage overhead. This paper presents a trust management scheme for P2P networks that utilizes topology adaptation by constructing an overlay of trusted peers where the neighbors are selected based on their trust ratings and content similarities. It also increases the search efficiency by taking advantage of the implicit semantic community structures formed as a result of topology adaptation since most of the queries are resolved within the community of trustworthy peers. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme provides efficient searching to good peers while penalizing the malicious peers by increasing their search times. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.