A broadcast mode may augment peer-to-peer overlay networks with an efficient, scalable data replication function, but may also give rise to a virtual link layer in VPN-type solutions. We introduce a simple broadcasting mechanism that operates in the prefix space of distributed hash tables without signaling. This paper concentrates on the performance analysis of the prefix flooding scheme. Starting from simple models of recursive $k$-ary trees, we analytically derive distributions of hop counts and the replication load. Extensive simulation results are presented further on, based on an implementation within the OverSim framework. Comparisons are drawn to Scribe, taken as a general reference model for group communication according to the shared, rendezvous-point-centered distribution paradigm. The prefix flooding scheme thereby confirmed its widely predictable performance and consistently outperformed Scribe in all metrics. Reverse path selection in overlays is identified as a major cause of performance degradation.
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