[p2p-research] Forban - a simple link-local opportunistic p2p free software

[Alexandre Dulaunoy]

Hi All,

I made some experiments for a having a simple gossip-like p2p protocol
in my local area network. The free software implementation is called Forban :

http://www.foo.be/forban/

Forban works independently from Internet and use only the local area
capabilities to announce, discover, search or share files. Forban relies on
HTTP and he is opportunistic (meaning replicating any files seen in
his proximity or interest). The current implementation is written in Python.
The Forban protocols are minimalistic to ease the accessibility to
build independent Forban in any decent language or even in shell scripts
(using tcpdump and wget for example).

Forban operates in different modes, the opportunistic mode is the default
and working as a gossip protocol to disseminate data with any Forban
in his proximity. The main concept is to provide persistence for the
disseminated data even on periodic or unreliable communication.

This is just an experiment but it works as expected. If you have any
ideas or feedback to improve the protocol or the software, just let me know.

Kind regards,

--
--                   Alexandre Dulaunoy (adulau) -- http://www.foo.be/
--                             http://www.foo.be/cgi-bin/wiki.pl/Diary
--         "Knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance
--                                that we can solve them" Isaac Asimov