The survival of the fittest: an evolutionary approach to deploying adaptive functionality in peer-to-peer systems

ABSTRACT

The heterogeneous, large-scale and decentralised nature of peer-to-peer systems creates significant issues when deploying new functionality and adapting peer behaviour. The ability to autonomously deploy new adaptive functionality is therefore highly beneficial. This paper investigates middleware support for evolving and adapting peers in divergent systems through reflective component based design. This approach allows self-contained functionality to exist in the network as a primary entity. This functionality is autonomously propagated to suitable peers, allowing nodes to be evolved and adapted to their individual constraints and the specific requirements of their environment. This results in effective functionality flourishing whilst suboptimal functionality dies out. By this, a self-managed infrastructure is created that supports the deployment of functionality following the evolutionary theory of natural selection. This approach is evaluated through simulations to highlight the potential of using natural selection for the deployment and management of software evolution.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.2 COMPUTER-COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
      C.2.4 Distributed Systems

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
        D.2.11 Software Architectures

General Terms:
Design, Management

Keywords:
functional scalability, natural selection, peer-to-peer, reflective middleware, self-optimisation, software evolution