Abstract
The success of P2P network systems relies on the ability to distribute content quickly by utilizing the capacity of all peers. If all peers are willing to share their resources and cooperate with other peers, the performance of the system can be improved. Regrettably, some peers may be untrustworthy and unwilling to cooperate with others. Meanwhile, some peers may attack the network to degrade the efficiency. Therefore, it is very important to find a reliable mechanism to detect and eliminate faulty peers. In this study, the proposed scheme and rule allow each peer to recognize faulty peers even when there are peers leaving or joining. Basically, the protocol applies the classic concepts of Byzantine Agreement (BA) problems to assure that each peer can acquire a common set of faulty peers. Additionally, no non-faulty peers would be misjudged as faulty peers. By carrying out the proposed protocol, the faulty peers can be found and eliminated, as well as the performance of the P2P network systems can be recovered. © 2008 IADIS.