P2P overlay - Definition and Overview

A network overlay is a type of network architecture, usually one in which a network runs on top of another. For example, peer-to-peer networks are usually overlay networks because they run top of the Internet.

The overlay contains the distributed information in the network including connectivity information, location/name of superpeers, closest peers, and adjacency.

Dial-up internet is essentially an overlay upon the traditional telephone network.

List of overlay network protocols

• Chord A Massachusetts Institute of Technology lookup service project in development.
• The Circle
• P-Grid
• Tapestry
• Kademlia
• Pastry
• GISP
• Khashmir
• SharkyPy
• NEOnet

See also

Anonymous P2P Application programming interface

External links

• A discription of network overlays (http://himalia.it.jyu.fi/ffdoc/storm/pegboard/available_overlays--hemppah/peg.gen.html)