WO2008000840A1

WO2008000840A1 - Distributed p2p network system

Info

Publication number: WO2008000840A1
Application number: PCT/EP2007/056649
Authority: WO
Inventors: Zhiyuan Chen; Chun You Gao
Original assignee: Nokia Siemens Networks GmbH and Co KG
Current assignee: Nokia Solutions and Networks GmbH and Co KG
Priority date: 2006-06-30
Filing date: 2007-07-02
Publication date: 2008-01-03
Anticipated expiration: 2008-12-30
Also published as: CN101098270A

Abstract

This invention proposes a type of distributed peer-to-peer (P2P) network system, and said distributed P2P network includes a minimum of one P2P entity client and a minimum of one central service unit; said central service unit includes a minimum of one transaction management module and a minimum of one policy module. The transaction management module receives a transaction report dispatched by the P2P entity client and transmits it to the policy module. The policy module provides integrated management of different application policies, calculates charges and rewards for participants in accordance with said policies. Use of the distributed P2P network system provided by the invention makes it possible to track transactions during the P2P network and to obtain a transaction result in accordance with the circumstances of the occurred transaction and the policies applicable to that transaction, thus generating excitement within the P2P entities participating in the transaction by allowing them to receive a reward for the successful conclusion of the transaction, as well as effectively distributing resources, and thus promoting the healthy development of the distributed P2P network.

Description

Specification

DISTRIBUTED P2P NETWORK SYSTEM

Technical area

This invention comprises a type of network system structure, specifically, a type of distributed P2P network system structure.

Technical background

With the development of network technology, the sharing of resources has gradually become one of the main requirements of network users, and has thus become one of the major impelling forces behind the development of network technology. Network user number has grown swiftly with the popularisation and ever-increasing scale of networks, and the storage space and processing capacity of traditional integrated network servers have often become crucial bottlenecks in network development. In order to resolve this type of problem, distributed P2P network technology has recently received increased attention. In distributed P2P networks, network topology forms a distributed structure, in which shared resources are distributed among all P2P entities on the network, so that the network no longer features central nodes such as servers which centralize the storage and sharing of resources, all P2P entities act as logical P2P network nodes, and resource sharing is performed directly by each P2P entity on the network. This thus avoids centralized networks where shared resources are restricted to nodes, which can cause resource-sharing bottlenecks. However, in existing distributed P2P networks, the method by which the sharing of resources is directly performed by all P2P entities has created a new problem: the shared resources are freely distributed through P2P entities on the network, however a resource sharing P2P entity which has shared its resources is then unable to control the resource sharing activities of other P2P entities, which thereby harms its rights and interests . P2P entities providing shared resources are unable to receive the corresponding income for their contributions, so that a larger number of P2P entities in the resource sharing process become resource recipients, not resource suppliers. Resources are thus not shared effectively. If methods could not be found to solve these problems, it will similarly affect the healthy development of the distributed P2P networks.

For this reason, an incentive P2P (iP2P) mechanism must be deployed across the distributed P2P network systems before an electronic resource market based upon P2P can comprise a healthy commercial model. However, deploying an incentive mechanism across a distributed P2P network requires a platform to support this system which can track the transactions during the P2P network and calculate the charges payable to and rewards due from participants in the transactions. This generates excitement within the P2P entities participating in the transactions by allowing them to receive a reward for the successful conclusion of the transaction, as well as effectively distributing resources, and thus promoting the healthy development of the distributed P2P network.

In summary, in order to make more effective use of distributed P2P networks, a similar platform must be provided, such a distributed P2P network system based on such a system can effectively apply its incentive mechanism to provide fairer services based on P2P entities .

Contents of the invention

Because of this, the main object of this invention is to provide a type of distributed P2P network system which can provide a single platform based on the electronic resource marketplace, to provide transaction management and policy management between P2P network entities on a distributed P2P network system with an incentive mechanism, thus stimulating an increasing number of users to participate in distributed P2P network system transactions across P2P network entities.

In order to achieve said object, the technical plan of this invention is implemented in the following way: a type of distributed P2P network system includes a minimum of one P2P entity client and a minimum of one central service unit, and said P2P entity clients include a minimum of one supplier and a minimum of one recipient. Said central service unit includes a minimum of one transaction management module and a minimum of one policy module. Said transaction management module receives transaction report despatched by said P2P entity client and transmits it to said policy module. The policy module provides integrated management of different application policies, calculates charges and rewards for participants in accordance with said policies.

One aspect of this invention is that said policy module includes a minimum of one policy management module and a minimum of one policy pilot module. Said policy management module provides integrated management of different application policies. The policy pilot module analyzes said transaction report in accordance with said policies in the policy set, in order to calculate the charges payable by said recipients and the rewards due to said suppliers.

Another aspect of this invention is that said policy management module comprises a policy conversion module, which is used to analyze the policies in said policy management module in accordance with the classification format in said policy pilot module.

Another aspect of this invention is that said transaction management module receives the transaction reports despatched by said P2P entity clients and transmits them to said policy pilot module.

Another aspect of this invention is that said central service unit also includes a minimum of one user management module, a minimum of one application management module, and a minimum of one charge calculation module. The user management module is used to manage the registered users on said distributed P2P network; the application management module is used to manage the different applications on the distributed P2P network, and the charge calculation module is connected to said policy pilot module, and records or saves the charges or rewards for said P2P entity clients calculated by the policy pilot module.

Another aspect of this invention is that the P2P entity clients comprise a minimum of one incentive service module. The incentive service module is separately connected to said transaction management module and policy management module, and provides a central application process connection point for the P2P entity clients accessing said central service unit. Said incentive service module is also connected separately to said user management module and application management module.

Another aspect of this invention is that the P2P entity client also comprises one application module. The application module is connected to said incentive service module, and accesses the central service unit through said incentive service module.

Another aspect of this invention is that the application module comprises a central graphical user interface, which is used to operate all of the components of said application module. The central graphical user interface comprises a graphical user interface separated from the application module, which is used to separately operate specific portions of the application module.

It is clear that the distributed P2P network system provided by this invention comprises the following advantages and characteristics :

( 1 ) The distributed P2P network system provided by this invention comprises an incentive mechanism support platform. This platform is able to track the transactions during the P2P network and to obtain a transaction result in accordance with the circumstances of the occurred transaction and the policies applicable to that transaction, thus generating excitement within the P2P entities participating in the transaction by allowing them to receive a reward for the successful conclusion of the transaction, as well as effectively distributing resources, and thus promoting the healthy development of the distributed P2P network.

( 2 ) The distributed P2P network system provided by this invention provides a central application process connection point for user applications to the incentive platform. Regardless of the changes of network top-layer applications, these can all access the incentive platform through said central standard connection point, and thus calculate a transaction result. Network transmission providers or service providers using said standard connection point who wish to use new applications only need to connect the new application module to said platform, thus improving development efficiency and reducing time for development.

Explanation of figures

The figures above provide a more detailed description of the actual embodiment of this invention, as follows:

Figure 1 illustrates the structure of the distributed P2P network system of this invention.

Figure 2 illustrates the separate layers of the structure of the distributed P2P network system of this invention.

Actual embodiment

Figure 1 shows the structure of the distributed P2P network system of this invention. The distributed P2P network in Figure 1 includes one P2P entity client (iP2P Client) and one central service unit (iP2P Server) . The P2P entity client-iP2P Client periodically despatches a transaction report to the central service unit-iP2P server. The iP2P Server includes a transaction management module and a policy module. The transaction management module receives the transaction report despatched by iP2P Client, and transmits it to the policy module.

The policy module includes a policy management module and a policy pilot module. Each application policy can be modified at any time, and these modified policies combine to form an application' s single policy set. Different applications (such as downloads or streaming media applications, etc.) have different policy sets. The policy management module manages the policy sets of said different applications, and stores in its database policy data, updated policy data when a policy is updated, and deletes policy data upon expiry of a policy. For example, the policy for a specific downloading application may restrict its price to RMB5, but a temporary discount of 10% would allow an application supplier to earn a reward of RMBl. Application suppliers can implement further divisions, and further divided application suppliers can set more detailed rewarding policies. After implementing said policies, the policy management module first checks their integrity, and upon completing this, transmits said policies to the policy pilot module.

Once the distributed P2P network system has started the policy module's policy pilot module, the policy pilot module first loads said policy, and then awaits the arrival of the next transaction report . The transaction management module transmits the transaction report that it received to the policy pilot module. Once the policy pilot module receives a transaction report, the application policy pilot parses the transaction report. A transaction report normally carries an application identifier, and when parsing, the policy pilot first correlates the application identifier with the applications in the policy management module, so that it can process said transaction report according to the correlated software policies .

Policies applied in the policy management module are normally expressed in a format easy to understand and manage, but policy pilot modules normally use formats more difficult to understand with higher transmission efficiency, such as scripts. To allow easy connection between the policy management module and the policy pilot module, the policy management module output first passes through a policy conversion module, which converts the policy format into a format that the policy pilot module will more easily understand.

The iP2P Server central service unit also includes a user management module, an application management module and a charge calculation module. The user management module is used to manage all of the users who are registered with the distributed P2P network. When a new user registers with said network, the user management module creates a new record to identify this user; where there is any change to a registered user, the user management module alters the registered user' s data; when a user logs in, the user management module verifies whether the user is or not; when a user logs out from the distributed P2P network, the user management module deletes the user. The application management module manages the different applications running on the distributed P2P network. Where said network receives a new application, the application management module creates a new record to identify the application; where there is any change to the application data, the application management module alters or updates the application' s data; when a P2P entity requests that application, the application management module verifies that the application is registered with the module; where an application logs off from the distributed P2P network, the application management module deletes that application.

The charge calculation module is connected to the policy pilot module. The rewards to be given to suppliers and charges to be deducted from recipients calculated by the policy pilot module are passed to said charge calculation module, and the charge calculation module distributes rewards to suppliers and charges recipients according to the calculation results.

The distributed P2P network-P2P entity clients include an application module and an incentive service module. During a single transaction, the P2P entity client's application module is connected to the iP2P Server central service unit's transaction management module through its incentive service module, and the transaction management module is reconnected to the policy pilot module, as shown by the continuous line in Figure 1. Furthermore, the P2P entity client's application module is also connected to the iP2P Server central service unit's policy management module through its incentive service module, and the policy management module is reconnected to the policy pilot module through the policy conversion module, as shown by the dash line in Figure 1. The incentive service module is also separately connected to the user management module and application management module, as shown by the dotted line in Figure 1.

The incentive service modules and the iP2P Server central service unit to which these are connected together form a single platform supporting an incentive mechanism within the distributed P2P network system. P2P entity client applications (such as downloads, streaming media, etc.), which themselves do not have an incentive mechanism, must connect to the incentive mechanism through said incentive service module. In other words, the incentive service module is a central, open application process connection point, whereby any new application can access the incentive mechanism through said open application process connection point. In order to more conveniently implement said application process connection point, the P2P entity's clients can be further improved.

Figure 2 shows the separate layers of the distributed P2P network system clients of this invention. The bottom of Figure 2 is the communications layer, such as the network layer in a TCP/IP network structure, while above the communications layer is the transmission layer, such as the transmission layer in a TCP/IP network structure. Above the transmission later is an iP2P service layer: apart from containing iP2P incentive services, this layer also includes other services, and is tasked with providing a single central connection point with the applications above. This connection point embodies said iP2P incentive mechanism platform capabilities. In other words, all capabilities of the incentive platform pass through said service layer to appear in said P2P entity client. Multiple applications can be supported above the service layer, and there are therefore multiple application modules.

There is a centralized graphical user interface (GUI) above the multiple application modules, which is used to operate said application modules . Above the centralized graphical user interface lies a separate graphical user interface to the application module. The whole style of this graphical user interface is more consistent, and within the restrictions of identical graphical user interfaces, can easily create a graphical user interface for each application module relatively.

It is clear from said embodiment that the distributed P2P network system provided by this invention has a incentive mechanism support platform, and this makes it possible to track transactions during the P2P network and to obtain a transaction result in accordance with the circumstances of the occurred transaction and the policies applicable to that transaction, thus generating excitement within the P2P entities participating in the transaction by allowing them to receive a reward for the successful conclusion of the transaction, as well as effectively distributing resources, and thus promoting the healthy development of the distributed P2P network.

Claims

Cl aims

1. A type of distributed P2P network system includes a minimum of one P2P entity client and a minimum of one central service unit. Said P2P entity client shall include a minimum of one supplier and a minimum of one recipient, characterized in that said central service unit includes a minimum of one transaction management module and a minimum of one policy module. The transaction management module receives a transaction report despatched by said P2P entity client and transmits it to the policy module. The policy module provides integrated management of different application policies, calculates charges and rewards for participants in accordance with said policies.

2. The distributed P2P network system as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that said policy module includes a minimum of one policy management module and a minimum of one policy pilot module. The policy management module provides integrated management of different application policies. The policy pilot module analyzes said transaction report in accordance with the policies in the policy set, in order to calculate the charges payable by said recipient and the rewards due to said supplier.

3. The distributed P2P network system as claimed in claim 2, characterized in that said policy management module contains a policy conversion module, which is used to analyze the policies in the policy management module in accordance with the classification format in the policy pilot module.

4. The distributed P2P network system as claimed in claim 2, characterized in that the transaction management module receives the transaction report despatched by the P2P entity client and transmits it to the policy pilot module.

5. The distributed P2P network system as claimed in claim 1-4, characterized in that the central service unit also includes a minimum of one user management module, which is used to manage the registered users on the distributed P2P network.

6. The distributed P2P network system as claimed in claim 1-4, characterized in that the central service unit also includes a minimum of one application management module, which is used to manage the different applications don the distributed P2P network .

7. The distributed P2P network system as claimed in claim 1-4, characterized in that the central service unit also includes a charge calculation module. The charge calculation module is connected to the policy pilot module, and saves or stores the charges or rewards for the P2P entity clients calculated by the policy pilot module.

8. The distributed P2P network system as claimed in claim 2 and 3, characterized in that the P2P entity client comprises a minimum of one incentive service module. The incentive service module is connected separately to said transaction management module and policy management module, and provides a central application process connection point for the P2P entity clients accessing said central service unit.

9. The distributed P2P network system as claimed in claim 8, characterized in that the incentive service module is also connected separately to said user management module and application management module.

10. The distributed P2P network system as claimed in claim 8 and 9, characterized in that the P2P entity client also comprises a minimum of one application module. The application module is connected to the incentive service module, and is also connected to the central service unit through the incentive service module.

11. The distributed P2P network system as claimed in claim 10, characterized in that the application module comprises a central graphical user interface, which is used to operate all of the components of said application module.

12. The distributed P2P network system as claimed in claim 11, characterized in that the central graphical user interface comprises a corresponding graphical user interface separated from said application module, which is used to separately operate said application module.