FileTrust: Reputation management for reliable resource sharing in structured peer-to-peer networks

Abstract

In peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, reputation is used to estimate the trustworthiness of servents** and to help prevent untrustworthy resources from spreading by malicious servents. However, in dynamic scenarios with arrivals and departures of servents and resources, servent reputation is not enough to reduce the impacts of malicious behaviors such as lying, whitewashing, etc. In this paper, we propose a new reputation management model using both servent and resource reputation and demonstrate detail protocols to implement our model in structured P2P networks. Simulation results show that our model can reduce the rate of downloading untrustworthy resources more rapidly than the previous models even in dynamic scenarios where servents can rejoin with new identities, introduce new untrustworthy resources, and send wrong feedbacks. Also, we show that the proposed model and protocol can effectively share the load between servents.