Mobile peer-to-peer computing: challenges, metrics and applications

The pervasiveness of computers in our current society (transportation, e-commerce, home appliances, medical monitoring, process control) expands our freedom for flexible ad-hoc communication and dynamic collaboration between individuals through a wide variety of devices. With the pervasive deployment of computers, the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) model is increasingly receiving attention for direct and symmetric interaction and to perform critical functions in a decentralized manner. Some of the benefits of a P2P environment include its ability for self-organization, scalability by avoiding dependency on centralized servers, resource aggregation and adaptation to different loads, resiliency to node failures and lower cost of ownership and cost sharing. The goal of this panel is to explore the synergy of these two technologies, identify the challenges along with their shortcomings and explore promising approaches.