DESENT: Decentralized and distributed semantic overlay generation in P2P networks

Abstract

The current approach in web searching, i.e., using centralized search engines, rises issues that question their future applicability: 1) coverage and scalability, 2) freshness, and 3) information monopoly. Performing web search using a P2P architecture that consists of the actual web servers has the potential to tackle those issues. In order to achieve the desired performance and scalability, as well as enhancing search quality relative to centralized search engines, semantic overlay networks (SONs) connecting peers storing semantically related information can be employed. The lack of global content/topology knowledge in a P2P system is the key challenge in forming SONs, and this paper describes an unsupervised approach for decentralized and distributed generation of SONs (DESENT). Through simulations and analytical cost models we verify our claims regarding performance, scalability, and quality. © 2007 IEEE.