FREENET

Bipasha Roy
Roll- 74
Introduction

• Networked Computer Systems are

rapidly growing.
• Current systems offer little user privacy.
• Every new data item is stored in only
one or few places.
Freenet

• A distributed information storage and

retrieval system.
• Privacy concerns.
• No central point failures.
• Operates as a distributed file system
across many individual computers.
• Transparent moving, deleting, replication of
data
Freenet Design Goals

• Maintain anonymity for producer and

consumer of information.
• Deniability of storage of information in one
place.
• Efficient Dynamic storage and routing
of information.
• Network functions decentralization.
Roadmap
• Architecture
 Keys and Searching
 Retrieving Data
 Storing Data
 Managing Data
 Adding Nodes
• Protocol Details
• Performance Analysis
 Network Convergence
 Scalability
 Fault Tolerance
 Small World Model
• Security
Architecture

• Freenet implemented as an adaptive peer

to peer network of nodes.
• Nodes can request query to each other for
information to store or retrieve data.
• Each node maintains :
• Shared Datastore
• Routing Table of entries
Architecture ( Cont…)

• Requests for keys are passed along from

node to node through a chain of proxy
requests.
• Routes depend on the key.
• Each request is assigned a hops-to-live value.
• Each request is assigned a unique
random identifier.
Keys And Searching

• Freenet data files are identified by binary

file keys.
• Three Types of keys
• Keyword-Signed Key (KSK)
• Signed-Subspace Key ( SSK )
• Content Hash Key ( CHK )
Keyword-Signed Key (KSK)

• KSK derived from a descriptive string of the file.

The descriptive string is chosen when storing
the file.
• Based on the descriptive string a
public/private key pair is generated.
• Public half is hashed to yield the file key.
• Private half ensures the match of a retrieved file
Signed-Subspace Key ( SSK )
• A user creates a namespace by
randomly generating a public/private
key pair.
• File insertion based on the private
half.
Content Hash Key ( CHK)

• A content hash key is acquired by directly

hashing the contents of the corresponding
file.
• This assigns a unique file key.
• Files are encrypted using a randomly
generated hash key.
• User publishes the content hash key along
with the decryption key.
Retrieving Data
• Downstream node : Node to which a request will be
passed.
• Upstream node : Node to which a reply/data
returns.
• Continued
 If not found, the request is propagated to the next node.
 If found in the next node, the data is returned back across the
path established.
• Failures
 If downstream node “down”, current node tries it’s second
choice.
 If hops-to-live exceeded, failure message returned to the original
requestor.
Retrieving Data (Cont…)
Storing Data

• Storing data is similar to the process of

retreving data.
• Calculate the binary file key, specify hops-to-
live.
• Hops-to-live specifies the number of
nodes where the data will be stored.
• If the key is found, the node returns the
pre-existing file to the requestor.
Data Management

• Finite storage space.

• Finite route table space.
• Storage managed by LRU.
• Inconsistency between Storage space and
route tables.
• Routing table entries are deleted in the
same fashion.
Adding Nodes

• A new node can join the network by

discovering the address of one or
more existing nodes.
• New nodes must “announce”
their existence.
• Existing nodes would like to know to
which keys they should assign the new
nodes.
Freenet Protocol

• Based on messages.
• Message form
<Transaction id, Hops-To-Live, Depth counter>
• Depth counter incremented at every
hop. Used by the replying node to
ensure that the message will reach the
requestor.
Performance Analysis

• Network Convergence
• Scalability
• Fault Tolerance
Free net –Prerouting

• Freenet Messages are encrypted by a

succession of public keys which determine
the route that message will follow.
• Nodes along the route cannot determine
either the originator of the message or its
contents( since encrypted ).
Conclusions

• Effective means of anonymus

information storage and retrieval.
• Highly scalable.