The NICT's Traceable Networks Group is researching systems for tracking the exchange of information and files on P2P networks.
"P2P networks are often used for exchanging files. They resemble human networks, where information is concentrated at the location of the person possessing it; that is, files are concentrated at nodes with lots of files. This is a very large node on the network. It's called a supernode.
Supernodes are used to connect smaller groups of peers and have an important influence on file circulation, similar to central servers in earlier P2P networks. So if the position of a supernode is detected, the state of circulation can be easily determined.
In this demonstration, traffic logs for tracking the state of circulation of files being exchanged on a P2P network are displayed on Google Maps. The yellow pins denote supernodes.
"For example, if you look at the Chiba node, it only has this many links, but the Tokyo node is connected to a huge number of nodes. In other words, lots of files are collected or dispersed through there, and inquiries about files come from lots of nodes. So by investigating this supernode, we can get information about the surrounding nodes. Japan has a very large number of widely spread nodes, so first of all, we find the supernodes, and investigate them. This makes it possible to investigate lots of nodes very efficiently."
The research group observes P2P networks daily, and uses the observation data to create a database. In this demonstration, when you input a keyword, you get search results for files related to the keyword.
"For example, you can see that an NHK TV program was uploaded to the network at 3pm on May 17 by a person at this IP address."
By searching with keywords related to a file currently being exchanged, you can get a list of IP addresses for nodes that have that file. The node with the oldest file is the node from where the file was originally uploaded.
"This map shows the distribution of nodes for a P2P application called BitTorrent. There are said to be over 100 million potential users of this application. That's thousands of times more than Winny has. This network is like spaghetti. If you think the file is in Europe, it could have already gone to Africa, or America; the circulation of files around the world is very complicated. Our group is only investigating within Japan at present; if we want to investigate the circulation of files to other countries, we'll need to handle a huge amount of data."
Sometimes, files being exchanged are altered before being sent out again on P2P networks. This system can use P2P traceable networks to detect files before and after alteration, and their circulation status. It can track them, and also track files that have been sent out again between several P2P networks.
Related Links :
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Traceable Network Group
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Interop Tokyo 2010
