Method and apparatus for peer-to-peer services

• US 20030009518A1
• Filed: 03/08/2002
• Published: 01/09/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 07/06/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Harrow, Ivan P., Curley, Martin G., Fleming, David O., Daly, Frank X., Honan, Dermot E.
• Granted Patent: US 7,562,112 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1063 Discovery through centralising entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

A method and apparatus for peer-to-peer services have been described.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a data transfer request from a first device;

receiving from the first device a second device data transfer destination;

determining a nearest source for the data to the second device;

initiating a transfer of the data to the second device.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising communicating to the first device that the second device has received the requested data.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining is performed by a directory sever.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the directory server communicates with the first device after the transfer of data to the second device is completed.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the directory server updates a directory server list to indicate that the second device has the data.

6. A method comprising:

receiving a data transfer request from a first device;

determining a nearest second device to the first device;

determining a nearest source for the data to the second device;

initiating a transfer of the data to the second device; and

communicating to the first device that the second device has the requested data.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein said data transfer request further comprises a request for data located on a second network to which the first device is not directly connected.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein said second network is the Internet.

9. The method of claim 6 wherein the nearest source is another device not accessible from the Internet.

10. The method of claim 6 wherein the transfer is a peer-to-peer transfer.

11. The method of claim 6 wherein determining the nearest source for the data comprises selecting from a plurality of sources one source with a shortest transfer time for the data from said one source to said device.

12. A directory server system comprising a processor, which when executing a set of instructions performs the method of claim 6.

13. A machine-readable medium having stored thereon instructions, which when executed performs the method of claim 6.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein means for transferring the data from the second device to the first device is a peer-to-peer transfer on a LAN.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 further comprising means for transferring the data when the first device is reconnected to the LAN.

17. The apparatus of claim 14 further comprising means for updating a list of locations for the data after transferring the data from the second device to the first device.

18. The apparatus of claim 14 further comprising means for maintaining a prioritized list of nearest sources of the data.

19. A machine-readable medium having stored thereon information representing the apparatus of claim 14.

14. An apparatus comprising:

means for receiving from a first device a request for data;

means for receiving from the first device a selection of a second device as a destination for the requested data;

means for transferring the data to the second device;

means for determining when the second device has received the data; and

means for transferring the data from the second device to the first device.

20. A system comprising a processor, which when executing a set of instructions, performs the following:

inputs a data request from a first device;

inputs a destination for the data from the first device;

determines a nearest source for the data;

transfers the data from the nearest source to the destination; and

informs the first device of the transfer of the data.

21. The system of claim 20 further comprising determining a source having the fastest transfer time for the data from the source of the data to the destination.

22. The system of claim 20 further comprising transferring a payment and/or a credit.

23. The system of claim 20 further comprising a second transfer of the data from the destination to the first device.

24. The system of claim 23 wherein the second transfer of the data from the destination to the first device is via a peer-to-peer communication on a LAN.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the third party client and the second party client are connected to a same LAN.

27. The method of claim 25 wherein said list maintained takes into account factors selected from the group consisting of physicality to the third pary client, network third party client is attached to, network second party client is attached to, bandwidth of a network, available bandwidth of a network, time expiration of the file, file size, and time to transfer the file.

29. The apparatus of claim 28 further comprising a LAN, the first device coupled to the LAN to receive data from the second device coupled to the LAN

30. The apparatus of claim 29 further comprising a client connection detector having an input and an output, the input coupled to receive a signal when the first device is connected to the LAN, and the second device coupled to receive the client connection detector output indicating when the data may be transferred from the second device to the first device.

25. A method for a third party client to control a file transfer in a peer-to-peer network, the method comprising:

receiving from the third party client at a first party server a request for the file transfer;

receiving from the third party client at the first party server a selection of a second party client for receiving the file;

determining from a list maintained on the first party server a source location for the requested file; and

transferring the file from the source location to the second party client;

28. An apparatus comprising:

a directory server having a bi-directional communications port, the bi-directional communications port coupled to receive a request for data from a first device, the bi-directional communications port coupled to receive a data destination, located at a second device, from the first device; and

a retrieval engine having a bi-directional communications port, the bi-directional communications port coupled to receive the data from a first network, the bi-directional communications port coupled to receive the data destination from the directory server, and the second device coupled to receive the data from the retrieval engine bi-directional communications port.