P2P Content Distribution via Anonymizing Relay Nodes
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Solution Overview
Problem
Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks face challenges in maintaining anonymity for both the requesting and serving peers, making it difficult to ensure that peers remain unidentified in content distribution, which can lead to security and privacy issues.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a P2P network architecture that utilizes a tracker to redirect requests through intermediate nodes, encrypting messages with public keys and employing k-anonymity and community anonymity concepts to obscure peer identities, ensuring that only the serving and requesting peers know each other's identities and the nature of the content, while intermediate nodes remain unaware.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a P2P network uses direct peer-to-peer connections for content distribution, then network simplicity and directness are maintained, but peer anonymity is compromised as both requesting and serving peers can identify each other
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces intermediate nodes (relay nodes) that act as mediators between requesting and serving peers. These intermediaries forward content and control signals without revealing the identities of the underlying peers, thus maintaining anonymity while enabling P2P content distribution. The intermediate nodes are managed by a tracker system that coordinates the anonymized connections.
Solution Approach 2:
The network is segmented into multiple layers: requesting peers connect to intermediate nodes, which connect to serving peers through the tracker system. This segmentation separates the content distribution function from the identity revelation function, allowing anonymous P2P communication while maintaining system manageability through the tracker.
2Reliability
If a tracker system is introduced to manage intermediate nodes for anonymity, then peer anonymity is improved, but system complexity and potential single point of failure increase
Solution Approach 1:
Different components of the system have different trust requirements. Intermediate nodes only need to forward data anonymously without knowing peer identities, while the tracker maintains coordination. This local quality differentiation means that even if the tracker is compromised, the intermediate nodes continue to function anonymously, reducing the overall system vulnerability.
Solution Approach 2:
The tracker itself uses intermediate nodes as intermediaries to manage connections. Instead of direct tracker-to-peer connections, the tracker communicates through these intermediate nodes, adding an additional layer of anonymity and reducing the risk of direct compromise propagating through the system.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If encryption with public keys is used for content distribution, then content security is improved, but computational overhead and key management complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
Each peer generates and manages its own public key pair independently. The encryption and decryption operations are performed automatically by the peer's software without requiring manual key distribution or complex key management infrastructure. This self-service approach secures content against interception while keeping key management simple for individual peers.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for transferring content includes requesting the content from a serving peer and sending the content to a requesting peer. Requesting the content includes sending a request to a tracker, receiving a request token, a path identifier, and a first peer identifier from the tracker, and sending a request message to a second peer. The first peer identifier includes an identity of a first peer, and the request message includes the request token, the path identifier, and the first peer identifier. Sending the content includes receiving the request token and the path identifier from a third peer, sending a return message to a fourth peer, and transferring the content from the serving peer to the requesting peer through a transfer path. The return message includes the path identifier and a second peer identifier. The second peer identifier includes an identity of a fifth peer. The transfer path includes at least the second, fourth, and fifth peers.