SDC: A Distributed Clustering Protocol for Peer-to-Peer Networks

Network clustering can facilitate data discovery and peerlookup in peer-to-peer systems. In this paper, we design a distributed network clustering protocol, called SCM-based Distributed Clustering (SDC), for peer-to-peer networks. In this protocol, clustering is dynamically adjusted based on Scaled Coverage Measure (SCM), a practical clustering accuracy measure. By exchanging messages with neighbors, peers can dynamically join or leave a cluster so that the clustering accuracy of the whole network is improved. SDC is a fully distributed protocol which requires only neighbor information, and it can handle node dynamics locally with very small message overhead while keeping good quality of clustering. Through extensive simulations, we demonstrate that SDC can discover good quality clusters very efficiently.