Searching the Network

Leaving aside the communicative p2p implementations, probably the next most common reason for running a p2p network is distributing and sharing resources. A core functionality in the network is the ability to search for specific resources, distributed services, or for that matter, people.

For the purposes of this discussion of principles, it’s convenient to restrict the focus to finding content, as in the common file-sharing applications. Although the related issues of storing and retrieving content is mentioned in this context, the Content Management section looks specifically at this aspect.

The seemingly trivial issue of finding content is actually quite complex in practical implementation. Different networks—and for ...

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