Research in the area of peer-to-peer systems is mainly focused on structuring the overlay network. Little attention is paid to the process of setting up and joining a peer-to-peer overlay network, i.e. the bootstrapping of peer-to-peer networks. The major challenge is to get hold of one peer that is already in the overlay. Otherwise, the first peer must be able to detect that the overlay is currently empty. Successful P2P applications either provide a centralized server for this task (Skype) or they simply put the burden on the user (eMule). We propose an automatic solution which does not require any user intervention and does not exhibit a single point of failure. Such decentralized bootstrapping protocols are especially important for open non-commercial peer-to-peer systems which cannot provide a server infrastructure for bootstrapping. The algorithm we are proposing builds on the Internet Relay Chat (IRC), a highly available, open, and distributed network of chat servers. Our algorithm is designed to put only a very minimal load on the IRC servers. In measurements we show that our bootstrapping protocol scales very well, handles flash crowds, and does only put a constant load on the IRC system disregarding of the peer-to-peer overlay size.
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