A novel approach to local vaccination of P2P networks with power-law node degree distributions

The power-law node degree distributions of peer-to-peer overlay networks make them extremely robust to random failures whereas highly vulnerable under intentional targeted attacks. To enhance attack survivability of these networks, a novel immunization strategy, coupled with a NoN-indexing based acquaintances selection method, is proposed to conduct completely decentralized immunizations, by utilizing only domain heuristics locally, and by curing only those right nodes with (1) highest connectivity, (2) highest availability and (3) highest link-load. Extensive simulation results show that the proposed immunization strategy outperforms its competitors, producing an arresting increase of the network attack tolerance, at a lower price of eliminating computer viruses or malicious attacks.