Managing trust in a peer-2-peer information system

ABSTRACT

Managing trust is a problem of particular importance in peer-to-peer environments where one frequently encounters unknown agents. Existing methods for trust management, that are based on reputation, focus on the semantic properties of the trust model. They do not scale as they either rely on a central database or require to maintain global knowledge at each agent to provide data on earlier interactions. In this paper we present an approach that addresses the problem of reputation-based trust management at both the data management and the semantic level. We employ at both levels scalable data structures and algorithms that require no central control and allow to assess trust by computing an agents reputation from its former interactions with other agents. Thus the meethod can be implemented in a peer-to-peer environment and scales well for very large numbers of participants. We expect that scalable methods for trust management are an important factor, if fully decentralized peer-to-peer systems should become the platform for more serious applications than simple file exchange.

REFERENCES

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.4 COMPUTERS AND SOCIETY
      K.4.4 Electronic Commerce
          Subjects: Electronic data interchange (EDI)

Additional Classification:
  F. Theory of Computation
  F.2 ANALYSIS OF ALGORITHMS AND PROBLEM COMPLEXITY
      F.2.2 Nonnumerical Algorithms and Problems
          Subjects: Computations on discrete structures

  K. Computing Milieux
  K.4 COMPUTERS AND SOCIETY
      K.4.4 Electronic Commerce
          Subjects: Security

General Terms:
Algorithms, Human Factors, Performance

Keywords:
decentralized databases, peer-to-peer information systems, reputation, trust management