Synonyms
Peer-to-peer network; Peer-to-peer overlay
Definition
A peer-to-peer system is a computer network which enables peers to share the network resources, computational power and data storage, without relying on a central authority. Most commonly, peer-to-peer systems form overlay networks deployed in the Internet and are used for file sharing, realtime data streaming and computationally intensive tasks.
Key Points
In contrast to client-server systems, peer-to-peer systems consist of interconnected peers of similar capabilities and responsibilities, where the peers can act as both servers and clients. Most commonly, the architecture of the peer-to-peer systems is flat and all peers are assumed to be functionally equal. However, a number of peer-to-peer systems employ hierarchical architecture where some peers (superpeers) act as local servers for the subsets of regular peers. It is also widely accepted in peer-to-peer systems, where some services can be provided by a centralized...
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Galuba, W., Girdzijauskas, S. (2018). Peer-to-Peer System. In: Liu, L., Özsu, M.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8265-9_1230
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8265-9_1230
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