Peer trust evaluation using mobile agents in peer-to-peer networks

A method, comprising:

• an initiating peer node in a peer-to-peer network launching a mobile agent in the peer-to-peer network, wherein the mobile agent includes an itinerary indicating a plurality of peer nodes in the peer-to-peer network to be visited by the mobile agent, and wherein the mobile agent indicates an area of interest of the initiating peer node;
• the mobile agent collecting trust evaluations for a subset of the plurality of peer nodes as providers of codats relevant to the area of interest from one or more of the plurality of peer nodes indicated by the itinerary, wherein a codat is computer-representable content or data;
• and
• the initiating peer node determining a trust evaluation for each of the subset of the plurality of peer nodes as a provider of codats relevant to the area of interest from the trust evaluations collected by the mobile agent.

A computer-readable storage medium comprising program instructions, wherein the program instructions are configured to implement:

• an initiating peer node in a peer-to-peer network launching a mobile agent on the peer-to-peer network, wherein the mobile agent includes an itinerary indicating a plurality of peer nodes in the peer-to-peer network to be visited by the mobile agent, and wherein the mobile agent indicates an area of interest of the initiating peer node;
• the mobile agent collecting trust evaluations for a subset of the plurality of peer nodes as providers of codats relevant to the area of interest from one or more of the plurality of peer nodes indicated by the itinerary, wherein a codat is computer-representable content or data;
• and
• the initiating peer node determining a trust evaluation for each of the subset of the plurality of peer nodes as a provider of codats relevant to the area of interest from the trust evaluations collected by the mobile agent.

A peer-to-peer network system, comprising:

• an initiating peer node configured to:
• generate a mobile agent including an itinerary indicating a plurality of peer nodes in the peer-to-peer network to be visited by the mobile agent and further including an indication of an area of interest of the initiating peer node;
• and
• send the mobile agent to a first peer node of the plurality of peer nodes indicated by the itinerary;
• the first peer node, configured to:
• receive the mobile agent;
• store trust evaluations for one or more of the plurality of peer nodes as providers of codats relevant to the area of interest in a payload of the mobile agent, wherein a codat is computer-representable content or data;
• and
• send the mobile agent to a next peer node of the plurality of peer nodes indicated by the itinerary.