Abstract:
Peer-to-Peer (P2P) has received its most attention form file sharing and Skype. In Darmstadt the DFG Research Group QuaP2P was established in June 2006 that is also looking at new application scenarios for the P2P paradigm. These new applications require a higher quality of the underlying P2P system than the today known file sharing applications. Therefore, within QuaP2P the quality of Peer-to-Peer Systems is researched. As proof of concept we use two reference scenarios, a distributed software development scenario and a catastrophe scenario. The last catastrophes that struck humanity P2P applications showed their usefulness for coordinating the international aid organisations. The availability of location-based information is here a key feature to successful aid operations.

At the Multimedia Communications Lab we develop a new P2P overlay network called Globase (Global LOcation-BAsed Search) that supports efficient location based search. In difference to other approaches also efficient area search is supported. This is achieved by using a super-peer approach where the super-peers are organized in a B-tree like structure. In this talk the basic Globase-system is presented and evaluation results are shown.

Short Bio:
Prof. Ralf Steinmetz worked for over nine years in industrial research and development of distributed multimedia systems and applications. He has been head, since 1996, of the Multimedia Communications lab at Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany.

From 1997 to 2001 he directed the Fraunhofer (former GMD) Integrated Publishing Systems Institute IPSI in Darmstadt. In 1999 he founded the Hessian Telemedia Technology Competence Center (httc e.V.). His thematic focus in research and teaching is on multimedia communications with his vision of real "seamless multimedia communications". With over 200 refereed publications he has become ICCC Governor in 1999; was awarded the ranking of Fellow of both, the IEEE in 1999 and the ACM in 2002.

Link to Homepage of Prof. Steinmetz