Ph.D
Group : Artificial Intelligence and Inference Systems
Open-Source Software Distribution in a Peer-to-Peer Environment
Starts on 01/10/2004
Advisor :
[Dan Vodislav]
Funding : Convention industrielle de formation par la recherche
Affiliation : vide
Laboratory : CNAM, INRIA Saclay (Gemo)
Defended on 24/11/2008, committee :
Isabelle COMYN-WATTIAU Bernard LANG
Elisabeth MURISASCO
François BANCILHON
Michel SCHOLL
Dan VODISLAV
Research activities :
- Optimization
Abstract :
The aim of this research work is to improve the mechanisms for distributing open-source software among the developers and users communities. We designed a novel system for content dissemination, based on a peer-to-peer (P2P) architecture, providing a large panel of functionalities such as publishing content, subscription and notification mechanisms, querying and content downloading. We propose a structured model for content, annotated with metadata, on which we build a complex information system with advanced capabilities for resource location. The decentralized approach inherent to a P2P structure, combined with a rich model for content description, create together the premises for a scalable and flexible system, where all the peers in the network (publishers, mirrors or clients) are involved in the distribution process. Our solution comes to face a real necessity in open-source software development and offers a replacement alternative to the current
distribution mechanisms. We integrated several existing subsystems (a distributed index for metadata management and a dissemination platform based on content clustering and multicast) into a complex system that transparently provides to the user all the content management functionalities. Our implementation took the shape of an industrial prototype, evaluated on a large scale network deployment and ready to be adopted by Mandriva Linux community.