Galaxia: A Semi-decentralized System for Implementing Secure-Group P2P Networks

Private P2P networks are peer-to-peer (P2P) networks that only allow some mutually trusted computers to share resources. In this paper, we consider a special type of Private P2P system - the Secure-group P2P (SGP) system. SGP systems form an overlay network consisting of private groups which allow only members belonging to the same group to see and share resources. We introduce Galaxia: a semi-decentralized system that creates and manages SGP networks. We discuss the rationale behind adopting a semi-decentralized approach, discuss various issues that need to be resolved when dealing with SGP networks and provide the details of the Galaxia architecture