[chord] problems with chord

[Emil Sit]

Maurizio,

> For example, lets suppose we have only 2(?) peers in
> a filesharing network:

The Chord lookup algorithm and the DHash DHT do not provide
a file sharing service directly --- rather, they provide primitives
upon which systems (such as file sharing systems) can be built.

The Chord algorithm provides a way for nodes to self-organize,
and a mechanism for participating nodes to rendezvous given a
name.  The DHash DHT takes advantage of this organization to
provide a block storage abstraction. 

> lets suppose that NODE1 is looking for FILE-D...
> (consider we have an interface that asks for a filename
> to the user of the NODE1)

Two approaches for building file sharing systems on top of this
would be to
1. store data directly in DHash, and devise a scheme
   for mapping meta-data (such as filenames) to a name that
   DHash can find, or
2. store data on participating nodes and use Chord or DHash to
   provide a decentralized indexing system.

You can find some systems (such as Melody) described in our
papers listed at one of the sites below:
    http://pdos.lcs.mit.edu/pubs.html
    http://project-iris.net/irisbib/

-- 
Emil Sit / MIT CSAIL PDOS / http://pdos.lcs.mit.edu/chord/