Protocol Parameters

The first step is to create a protocol parameters object with information about our protocol and the database. This protocol parameters object will be an instantiation of one of the classes derived from PercyParams:

ZZ_pParams: Goldberg's IT-PIR protocol (2007) over the integers modulo p
GF2EParams: Goldberg's IT-PIR protocol (2007) over GF(2^E)
ChorParams: Chor et al.'s IT-PIR protocol (1995)
AGParams: Aguilar Melchor and Gaborit's CPIR protocol (2007)
RecursiveAGParams: Aguilar Melchor and Gaborit's CPIR protocol (2007) with recursion
HybridParams: Devet and Goldberg's Hybrid PIR protocol (2014)

Server Parameters

The protocol parameters object is then encapsulated in a server parameters object. This contains information about how the server will handle the computation.

If our protocol parameters object is non-recursive (one of AGParams, ChorParams, GF2EParams, or ZZ_pParams) we create a PercyServerParams object.

Otherwise, our protocol parameters object is recursive (one of HybridParams or RecursiveAGParams) and we create a RecursiveServerParams object.

Database

The next step involves setting up a database object. Using our server parameters object, we create a DataStore object:

DataStore: Used for a database held in a contiguous block of memory
FileDataStore: Used for a database held in a single file

Server

Finally, we create our server object. This is done by passing our server parameters and database to the factory method PercyServer::make_server().

Using the Server

For the server to handle a request from a client, a connection must be established with the client and then the server's PercyServer::handle_request() method can be used to process queries.