ROME: Optimising lookup and load-balancing in DHT-based P2P networks

Distributed Hash Tables (DHTs) have been used in Peer-to-Peer networks to provide key lookups in typically O(log n) hops whilst requiring maintenance of only small amounts of routing state. We extend ROME, a layer which runs on top of the Chord DHT to provide control over network size through monitoring of node workload and propose the use of processes to reorganise nodes and add or remove them from a pool of available machines. We show this can reduce further the hop counts in networks where available node capacity exceeds workload, without the need to modify any processes of the underlying Chord protocol.