[p2p-hackers] In search of the Darknet....

[Michael Rogers]

Duncan B. Cragg wrote:

> And there is definitely some confusion in the use of 'small world
> network': P2P researchers use it one way (for optimising the topology),
> F2F-ers another (apparently, then, as a synonym for F2F) - this may be
> the source of the apparent mix-up in the 'Freenet 2' slides.

As far as I know, both camps are referring to the same thing. A network 
is called a small world if it has a small diameter relative to its size 
(like a random network) and a high degree of clustering (unlike a random 
network). Social networks seem to have these characteristics, so we 
might expect F2F networks to have them too.

The routing algorithm in Freenet 0.7 is based on Kleinberg's much more 
specific definition of a small world [1] - a regular lattice with a few 
additional random links that follow a certain probability distribution - 
but there are other kinds of network with small world characteristics, 
eg scale-free networks [2].

Cheers,
Michael

[1] http://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/kleinber/nat00.pdf
[2] http://arxiv.org/pdf/cond-mat/9910332