Self Organizing Net Library
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Contents

• Goal

• What is SONlib?

• What is the status of the SONlib project?

• Tasks

• Milestones

• Questions and Answers

  • I don't understand a term, what can I do?

  • Why another lib instead of using the lib from the konspire[2b] project?

• Concepts

  • Concept map

  • Identifications

  • Messages

  • Protocols

• Glossary

• History

Goal

Goal is to provide a library for

• developing applications like
  • file sharing apps with push technology like in the konspire[2b] project (but with better scaling properties);
• building a spam resistent mail infrastructure in parallel to the current one.

The library should be

• easy to use;
• flexible:
  • with or without encryption at different levels,
  • supporting different net topologies;
• highly configurable by configuration files.

What is SONlib?

• SONLib is a shortcut for Self Organizing Net Library. It should ease decentralized building of nets of hosts for anonymously sending content over them. Each net should be the channel for a certain kind of content.
• Functionality:
  • decentralized building of nets of hosts (multi net):
    • it should be sufficient to know just one node in one of the nets to connect to arbitrary nets in the multi net
    • the nets are connected
  • distribution of content:
    • each net should be the channel for a certain kind of content
    • content will be propagated from node to node
  • feedback mechanism for feedback to senders
    • without knowing their location (IP address)
    • with or without encryption of feedback (allowing others to read it or not)
  • different kind of messages:
    • broadcast: from some node reaching all other nodes in its net
    • peer to peer: from some node to a specific other one
  • special addressing scheme for fast routing of peer to peer messages
  • usage of encrytion for ensuring
    • authenticity (correct sender)
    • integrity of content (not manipulated)
    • anonymity of content
• Inspiration: inspired by the konspire2b project.
• Libs, tools and technologies which could be useful for the project:
  • encryption: OpenSSL?
  • communication: ?
  • programming:
    • control flow: SF projects libsigc, libsigcx
  • misc: XML

What is the status of the SONlib project?

Currently SONlib is just in the conceptual phase: there isn't any software so far.

Tasks

Note: priorities are 'soft'; working on tasks may be done in parallel (even if they have different priorities).

Milestones

Since currently I'm very busy, there aren't any timelines so far.

Questions and Answers

I don't understand a term, what can I do?

Send me a mail: then I know, what's missing in the glossary....

Why another lib instead of using the lib from the konspire[2b] project?

The konspire[2b] library has problems:

1. it doesn't scale well to a high number of channels: all channels are using the same net, so the admin traffic increases with the number of channels;
2. a mechanism for sending feedback to senders is missing.

SONlib should solve these problems by

1. splitting the admin traffic by having multiple nets (one for each channel);
2. providing a feedback to senders mechanism.

Concepts

Concept map

The following image visualizes some concepts and their relations.

Identifications

Messages

Protocols

If the node outside net suits to the net, the net node accepts it. The returned netPolicy has to be compatible with the given nodePolicy. Thereafter:

• net node has a free neighbor slot: -> net node goes to acceptNodeAsNeighborFor;
• otherwise -> net node broadcasts the enterNet request with propagateEnterNetRequest.

The node outside net does not suit to the net, the net node rejects it with reason.

Net node broadcasts enterNetRequest to its neighbors.

• One of the neighbors has a free neighbor slot: -> neighbor goes to acceptNodeAsNeighborFor with node originally sending enterNetRequest as receiver;
• otherwise -> neighbors broadcast further after this protocol.

Net node accepts node outside net as new neighbor. Both nodes send a port number to the other one for establishing the neighbor connection.

Net node accepts node outside net as new neighbor. Node entering net does not want to become neighbor with reason (normally since it already has been accepted by another node).

EnterNetListener

Internal node listening for an external node trying to enter net.

EnterNetRequester

External node trying to enter net by requesting internal node.

Glossary

This glossary contains definitions of important terms used here.

admin net

An admin net is for

• creating a neighborship to other nodes (establishing long term connections),
• posting infos about channel subnets by their senders (which are responsible for them) to all other nodes in it (via long term connections).

channel net

A channel net is for

• posting info about content from one or more senders to all other nodes in it (via long term connections),
• propagating content from one or more senders to other interested nodes (the receivers) in it (using short term connections).

content

Content is the transmitted data of interest, which hopefully deserves these efforts around it...

leaf net

A leaf in the SON net tree without any subnets.

long term connection

A long term connection is a connection between neighbor nodes building a net.

net

• A net consists of nodes, which also can be members of an arbitrary number of other nets.
• There are two classes of nets reflecting their functionality:
  • channel nets and
  • admin nets;
  a net belongs to one or both of them.

net path

A net path identifies a certain net: a node may become member of some net by recursively becoming member of all its super nets, starting from the root net and ending with the identified one.

node

A node is a member of one or more nets. It is realized by a process running at a host, beeing addressed at transport level by an IP:port combo. A node usually has one or more neighbor nodes.

root net

The (one and only) top level net without a super net.

Self Organizing Net

The root net with all subnets. It has a tree structure.

short term connection

A short term connection is established for a content transmission between two nodes (normally not immediate neighbors).

SNI rule

Super net inclusion rule.

SON

Self Organizing Net.

SONlib

The library for building and using Self Organizing Nets.

subnet

A net one level down related to another net (there are zero or more subnets).

super net

The net one level up related to another net (there is exactly one super net for each net, except for the root net, which has none).

super net inclusion rule

The super net inclusion rule (SNI rule) says, that a node being member of a particular net also has to be member of its super net.
Consequences:

1. Each node member of a particular net is member of all super nets in a chain up to the root net.
2. All SON nodes are members of the root net.

History