This course on peer-to-peer (P2P) networking explains how nodes in a network communicate and pass data between themselves by creating secure communication channels. It introduces peer-to-peer networking basics by defining a server’s functions in a network environment and how resources and services are shared in this network. Common servers discussed are the IMAP (internet message access protocol) and SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol) servers used in the sending and receiving of email in both public and private settings. The material then explains how secure communication channels are set up via the process of user and server authentication. This is done using private and public keys, which a certificate authority gives. This certified certificate ensures the network element’s authenticity and safeguards a network from malicious hackers. The course also covers how peer-to-peer communication provides such services as telephony via SIP, domain name system (DNS) services, and DHCP (dynamic host configuration protocol) services.

Nodes identify and communicate with one another through the use of routing tables. One is a distributed hash table (DHT) used in peer-to-peer networking. These tables are populated using various algorithms, from simple ones to complex variants. The more complex the variant, the more secure the network will be. Would you like to design your own P2P network? This course will give you the proper foundation to achieve this goal. Pastry, Kademlia, and Tapestry protocols function in their approach to update the networks’ routing tables will be demonstrated. Extensive examples and illustrations are given in a step-by-step process so that you fully understand the structure and function of the protocols mentioned above. The course ends with a description of how these tables, presented in two dimensions for ease of understanding, can be expounded to any number of dimensions. This feature allows for multiple services to be provided to the end-user.

P2P networking is a distributed application design that divides tasks between peers. Peers are similarly privileged and are equal participants in the network. Peers make a share of their resources (such as processing power, disk storage or network bandwidth) directly available to other network members, without the need for central management of services by servers. Peers in a network are both consumers and suppliers of resources. This contrasts with the traditional client-server model, in which the consumption and supply of resources are separated. P2P systems look beyond the era of peers doing similar things while sharing resources. They are looking for dissimilar peers that can bring in exclusive resources and capabilities to a simulated community thus empowering them to engage in superior tasks beyond those that can be done by individual peers and beneficial to all the peers. P2P systems have inspired new structures and attitudes in many areas of human interaction and society. Do you want to be part of this exciting technology? Start this course today, and give your technology career a leap forward!