Peer-to-Peer Networks for Self-Organizing Virtual Communities

该项目扩展了点对点通信网络，以更好地支持广域计算机网络中虚拟社区的形成。虚拟社区将具有相似兴趣的个人聚集在一起，但形成社区和维持临界质量的困难阻碍了社区为小人口服务或与现有社区竞争。大规模的点对点网络提供了自组织社区的可能性，在这种社区中，节点识别并与具有相似兴趣的其他节点建立相对稳定的连接。该解决方案包括了解其网络邻居的节点，提供部分（和竞争性）目录服务的节点，在对等网络中有效路由消息的新方法，在包含许多资源的环境中做出资源选择决策的更准确方法，以及由包含多个任务需求（例如，成本，准确性和可靠性）的单个节点进行决策的实用理论模型。科学成果将是更强大和高效的点对点网络，形成虚拟社区的新技术，以及对复杂的点对点网络如何工作的更好理解。软件模拟器将使计算机科学、管理信息系统和商业专业的学生能够研究虚拟社区，例如测试市场失败的原因或鼓励社区形成的政策的假设。基础科学可以用来构建明确考虑成千上万个数据库的搜索工具，支持在组织内部网内动态创建虚拟社区的软件，以响应不可预见的发展（例如，国防部），以及无线网络，其中设备无论何时在另一个设备的范围内都可以工作。

This project extends peer-to-peer communication networks to better support formation of virtual communities in wide area computer networks. Virtual communities bring together individuals with similar interests, but the difficulty of forming them and sustaining critical mass discourages communities that serve small populations or compete with existing communities. Large-scale peer-to-peer networks offer the possibility of self-organizing communities, in which nodes recognize and create relatively stable connections to other nodes with similar interests. The solution includes nodes that learn about their network neighborhoods, nodes that offer partial (and competing) directory services, new methods of routing messages efficiently in peer-to-peer networks, more accurate methods of making resource selection decisions in environments containing many resources, and a utility-theoretic model for decision-making by individual nodes that incorporate multiple task requirements (e.g., cost, accuracy, and reliability). The scientific results will be more robust and efficient peer-to-peer networks, new techniques for forming virtual communities, and a better understanding of how complex peer-to-peer networks work. A software simulator will enable CS, MIS, and Business students to study virtual communities, for example testing hypotheses about why marketplaces fail or policies that encourage community formation. The basic science can be used to build search tools that explicitly consider tens of thousands of databases, software that supports dynamic creation of virtual communities within organizational intranets in response to unforeseen developments (e.g., the DoD), and wireless networks in which devices work whenever they are in range of another device.