Retrieval

Documents in Free Haven are indexed by the public key PK_doc used to sign the shares of the document. Readers must locate (or be running) a server which performs the document request. The reader comes up with a key pair (PK_client,SK_client) for this transaction, as well as a one-time remailer reply block. The servnet server does a broadcast of ``{`request', PK_doc, PK_client, reply block}'' to all servnet nodes that it knows about. These broadcasts can be queued and then sent out in bulk to conserve bandwidth.

Each server that receives the query will check to see if it has any shares with the requested PK_doc, and if it does it will encrypt each share in the enclosed public key PK_client, and then send the encrypted share through the remailer to the enclosed address. These shares will magically arrive out of the ether at their destination; once enough shares arrive ($\ge k$), the client recreates the file and is done.