The development and testing of a prototype to link peer-to-peer computing with databases of different types

This paper reports the development and testing of a prototype to link Peer-to-Peer (P2P) computing with databases of different types. The databases were created using XML files and three databases were used for the tests. A telephone directory database was used to exemplify a structured database. An e-mail database was used to exemplify a semistructured database. An image database was used to exemplify an unstructured database. Relevant literature was reviewed and from this an appropriate P2P system was selected for the development of the prototype. Types of databases that are currently in use have been considered, together with the types of data that would need to be held in them, with the aim of developing a framework to be used by the prototype. This framework would be used to demonstrate the extent to which a database with data of varying structure could be processed in a P2P environment. Based on this, a set of draft conclusions has been reached.