From P2P to reliable semantic P2P systems

Current research to harness the power of P2P networks involves building reliable Semantic Peer-to-Peer (SP2P) systems. SP2P systems combine two complementary technologies: P2P networking and ontologies. There are several types of SP2P systems with applications to knowledge management systems, databases, the Semantic Web, emergent semantics, web services, and information systems. Correct semantic mapping is fundamental for success of SP2P systems where semantic mapping refers to semantic relationship between concepts from different ontologies. Current research on SP2P systems has emphasized semantics at the cost of dealing with the traditional issues of P2P networks of reliability and scalability. As a result of their lack of resilience to temporary mapping faults, SP2P systems can suffer from disconnection failures. Disconnection failures arise when SP2P systems that use adaptive query routing methods treat temporary mapping faults as permanent mapping faults. This paper identifies the disconnection failure problem due to temporary semantic mapping faults and proposes an algorithm to resolve it. To identify the problem, we will use a simulation model of SP2P systems. The Fault-Tolerant Adaptive Query Routing (FTAQR) algorithm proposed to resolve the problem is an adaptation of the generous tit-for-tat method originally developed in evolutionary game theory. The paper demonstrates that the reliability of an SP2P system increases by using the algorithm.