Enabling dynamic querying over distributed hash tables

Dynamic querying (DQ) is a search technique used in unstructured peer-to-peer (P2P) networks to minimize the number of nodes that is necessary to visit to reach the desired number of results. In this paper, we introduce the use of the DQ technique in structured P2P networks. In particular, we present a P2P search algorithm, named DQ-DHT (Dynamic Querying over a Distributed Hash Table), to perform DQ-like searches over DHT-based overlays. The aim of DQ-DHT is twofold: allowing arbitrary queries to be performed in structured P2P networks and providing dynamic adaptation of the search according to the popularity of the resources to be located. DQ-DHT has been particularly designed for use in those distributed environments, like computational grids, where it is necessary to support arbitrary queries for searching resources on the basis of complex criteria or semantic features. This paper describes the DQ-DHT algorithm using Chord as basic overlay and analyzes its performance in comparison with DQ in unstructured networks.