A Model for Decentralized Information Dissemination

Peer-to-Peer computing paradigm may provide a solution to the retrieval problem in an ever burgeoning volume of online and digital information. While research has focused on the means of collaboration as a tool for query routing, we feel that there is a disconnect in the way P2P networks are handled and the expectations of performance in the real world. In the proposed work, we discuss the needs for an information need sensitive query routing methodology that can provide for effective and efficient search results. We investigate the producer-consumer model of information exchange to facilitate active metadata placement methodologies. The metadata placement methodologies are a dual to the larger query routing problem and effective placement lends itself to effective query routing in P2P networks. We also investigate an architecture for a P2P search network that is built atop a semi-structured overlay network. We discuss the motivations for such functional connectivity in the context of large scale information dissemination in decentralized environments. Finally, we present the case for effective web search to augment the current centralized search model with the proposed P2P model.