Software Development for P2P Systems

Project coordinator: Manuel Díaz Rodríguez

Project reference number: TIN2005-09405-C02-01

Project partially supported by Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional

Project Summary

Peer-to-Peer Systems (P2P) or systems distributed among peers/equals represent a new challenge in the development of software for distributed systems. These systems have brought about an important revolution in distributed computing paradigms, now that the roles of client and server, which are the basis of the most widely used distributed computation models, are disappearing. The new scenario consists of systems in which all the elements of the network are symmetrical and in most cases, the mechanisms of communication are not based on pre-existing infrastructures, but rather on dynamic ad-hoc networks among peers. At the same time, the recent technological advances in short distance wireless communications have opened up new areas of application which represent important technological challenges. The most significant examples in this field can be seen in sensor networks and new applications based on the use of mobile devices and ad-hoc networks. In both cases we are dealing with decentralized systems, links with transitory communications (connections and disconnections happen in an unpredictable and frequent manner) and a constantly changing topology. These systems have been generically called Collaborative Distributed Peer-to-Peer Systems (CDP2PS). The present project tries to overcome the problem of software development for CDP2PS, from the point of view of software support (middleware) using the most advanced technologies and software methodologies such as the development based on models and aspect-orientation, in which the participant groups of this project have a wide experience. These methodologies and technologies have been successfully used in the development of software for open generic distributed systems in the setting of previous projects (TIC99-1083-C02 and TIC2002-4309-C02), which were jointly developed by the two groups. The goal of the present project is to study up to what point these approximations are valid for CDP2PS and to propose new alternatives and/or suitable adaptations for new programming environments. The proposals will be validated by means of three representative applications which are the monitoring of atmosphere in industrial plants, applications for mobile telephones and domotics.

This project is related to the European project Secure Middleware for Embedded Peer to Peer Systems (SMEPP) with reference number: FP6-IST-033563.

Additional information about publications can be found in GISUM research group.

Comments and suggestions to: mdr@lcc.uma.es