One torus to rule them all: multi-dimensional queries in P2P systems

Abstract

Peer-to-peer systems enable access to data spread over an extremely large number of machines. Most P2P systems support only simple lookup queries. However, many new applications, such as P2P photo sharing and massively multi-player games, would benefit greatly from support for multidimensional range queries. We show how such queries may be supported in a P2P system by adapting traditional spatial-database technologies with novel P2P routing networks and load-balancing algorithms. We show how to adapt two popular spatial-database solutions - kd-trees and space-filling curves - and experimentally compare their effectiveness.