Peer of a Peer-to-Peer Network and Such Network

• US 20070233840A1
• Filed: 07/09/2004
• Published: 10/04/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/09/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Akamai Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Codemate APS
• Inventors: Alstrup, Stephen, Rauhe, Theis
• Granted Patent: US 8,996,646 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1068 Discovery involving direct consultation or announcement among potential requesting and potential source peers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066

Abstract

The invention relates to a peer-to-peer network where said peer-to-peer network comprises a plurality of peers (P), wherein said peer (RP) comprises and maintains a communication record (CR) defining a plurality of candidate peers (CP) from which information representative data (S) may be downloaded, wherein said plurality of candidate peers (CP) comprises a subset of said plurality of peers (P), and wherein said peer (RP) comprises means for downloading said information representative data (S) from at least one of said candidate peers (CP) according to an individual routine of said peer (RP). The invention furthermore relates to a peer-to-peer network comprising a plurality of peers (P) according to the above.

Claims

1. Peer of a peer-to-peer network where said peer-to-peer network comprises a plurality of peers, wherein said peer comprises and maintains a communication record defining a plurality of candidate peers from which information representative data may be downloaded,

wherein said plurality of candidate peers comprises a subset of said plurality of peers, and

wherein said peer further comprises means for downloading said information representative data from at least one of said candidate peers according to an individual routine of said peer.

2. Peer of a peer-to-peer network according to claim 1, wherein said peer acts substantially autonomously within said peer-to-peer network.

3. Peer of a peer-to-peer network according to claim 1, wherein said peer performs said maintaining said communication record at least partly on the basis of communication record updates.

4. Peer of a peer-to-peer network according to claim 3, wherein said peer further comprises means for downloading said communication record updates on a runtime basis.

5. Peer of a peer-to-peer network according to claim 4, wherein said downloading said communication record updates on a runtime basis is performed according to said individual routine of said peer.

6. Peer of a peer-to-peer network according to claims 1, wherein said peer substantially autonomously may decide to download or request download from candidate peers currently defined by said communication records.

7. Peer of a peer-to-peer network according to claim 1, wherein said individual routine comprises guidelines for deciding, on a runtime basis, which at least one of said candidate peers to download said information representative data from.

8. Peer of a peer-to-peer network according to claim 1, wherein said individual routine comprises guidelines for deciding, on a runtime basis, a number of said candidate peers to download said information representative data from.

9. Peer of a peer-to-peer network according to claim 1, wherein said peer downloads said information representative data from a plurality of said candidate peers substantially simultaneously.

10. Peer of a peer-to-peer network according to claim 1, wherein at least one peer of said plurality of peers comprises a peer-to-peer network server.

11. Peer of a peer-to-peer network according to claim 10, wherein said peer-to-peer network server transmits said information representative data to at least one of said plurality of peers of said peer-to-peer network.

12. Peer of a peer-to-peer network according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of said peers are associated with a unique identity representation.

13. Peer of a peer-to-peer network according to claim 12, wherein said communication record defines said candidate peers by said associated identity representation.

14. Peer of a peer-to-peer network according to claim 1, wherein said communication record is initialized and updated on a runtime basis by at least one of said candidate peers.

15. Peer of a peer-to-peer network according to claim 10, wherein said communication record is initialized and updated on a runtime basis by said server.

16. Peer of a peer-to-peer network according to claim 1, wherein said information representative data comprises a video or audio stream.

17. Peer of a peer-to-peer network according to claim 1, wherein said peer-to-peer network comprises a streaming network.

18. Peer of a peer-to-peer network according to claim 1, wherein said peer-to-peer network comprises a grid-based peer-to-peer network.

19. Peer of a peer-to-peer network according to claim 1, wherein said communication records of a plurality of peers of said peer-to-peer network are substantially identical.

20. Peer of a peer-to-peer network according to claim 1, wherein said communication record defines a subset of said plurality of peers of said peer-to-peer network to which information representative data may be uploaded.

21. Peer of a peer-to-peer network according to any of the claim 1, wherein at least two of said plurality of peers of said peer-to-peer network downloads said information representative data substantially simultaneously.

22. Peer of a peer-to-peer network according to claim 115, wherein said peer-to-peer network server furthermore transmits said communication record update to at least one of said plurality of peers of said peer-to-peer network.

23. Peer of a peer-to-peer network according to claim 3, wherein said information representative data is arranged to comprise said communication record update.

24. Peer of a peer-to-peer network according to claim 23, wherein said communication record update is associated and transmitted with said information representative data.

25. Peer of a peer-to-peer network according to claim 23, wherein accumulated said communication record updates on the average accounts for less than 20% of the size of accumulated said information representative data (S).

26. Peer of a peer-to-peer network according to claim 3, wherein said communication record update comprises changes of said communication record.

27. Peer of a peer-to-peer network according to claim 3, wherein said communication record update comprises a complete communication record.

28. Peer of a peer-to-peer network according to claim 1, wherein said communication record defines further properties or features of the peers it defines.

29. Peer of a peer-to-peer network according to claim 1, wherein said communication record defines properties or features of said information representative data.

30. Peer of a peer-to-peer network according to claim 1, wherein said information representative data is encoded and distributed according to a loss resiliency method.

31. Peer of a peer-to-peer network according to claim 1, wherein said information representative data is distributed according to a pull-strategy.

32. Peer of a peer-to-peer network according to claim 1, wherein said information representative data is distributed according to a push-strategy.

33. Peer of a peer-to-peer network according to claim 3, wherein said communication record update is distributed by a method corresponding to the method applied for distributing information representative data.

34. Peer of a peer-to-peer network according to claim 1, wherein said information representative data may comprise multiple information instances.

35. Peer of a peer-to-peer network according to claim 1 wherein said communication record defines said information instances of said information representative data.

36. Peer of a peer-to-peer network according to claim 1, wherein said candidate peers are not equally performing.

37. Peer of a peer-to-peer network according to claim 1, wherein said individual routine comprises trial and error algorithms.

38. Peer-to-peer network comprising a plurality of peers according to claims 1.

39. Peer of a peer-to-peer network where said peer-to-peer network comprises a plurality of peers, wherein said peer comprises and maintains a communication record defining a plurality of candidate peers from which information representative data may be downloaded,

wherein said plurality of candidate peers comprises a subset of said plurality of peers,

wherein said peer further comprises means for downloading said information representative data from at least two of said candidate peers according to an individual routine of said peer, and

wherein said peer downloads said information representative data from a plurality of said candidate peers substantially simultaneously.

40. Peer of a peer-to-peer network where said peer-to-peer network comprises a plurality of peers, wherein said peer comprises and maintains a communication record defining a plurality of candidate peers from which information representative data may be downloaded,

wherein said plurality of candidate peers comprises a subset of said plurality of peers,

wherein said peer further comprises means for downloading said information representative data from at least one of said candidate peers according to an individual routine of said peer, and

wherein said information representative data comprises live streaming data.

41. Peer of a peer-to-peer network where said peer-to-peer network comprises a plurality of peers, wherein said peer comprises and maintains a communication record defining a plurality of candidate peers from which information representative data may be downloaded,

wherein said plurality of candidate peers comprises a subset of said plurality of peers,

wherein said peer further comprises means for downloading said information representative data from at least one of said candidate peers according to an individual routine of said peer,

wherein at least one peer of said plurality of peers comprises a peer-to-peer network server,

and wherein said communication record is initialized and updated on a runtime basis by said server.

42. Peer of a peer-to-peer network where said peer-to-peer network comprises a plurality of peers, wherein said peer comprises and maintains a communication record defining a plurality of candidate peers from which information representative data may be downloaded,

wherein said plurality of candidate peers comprises a subset of said plurality of peers,

wherein said peer further comprises means for downloading said information representative data from at least one of said candidate peers according to an individual routine of said peer,

wherein at least one peer of said plurality of peers comprises a peer-to-peer network server,

and wherein said communication record is initialized and updated on a runtime basis by said server via said candidate peers.

43. Peer of a peer-to-peer network where said peer-to-peer network comprises a plurality of peers, wherein said peer comprises and maintains a communication record defining a plurality of candidate peers from which information representative data may be downloaded,

wherein said plurality of candidate peers comprises a subset of said plurality of peers,

wherein said peer further comprises means for downloading said information representative data from at least two of said candidate peers according to an individual routine of said peer,

wherein said peer downloads said information representative data from a plurality of said candidate peers substantially simultaneously,

wherein said information representative data comprises live streaming data,

wherein at least one peer of said plurality of peers comprises a peer-to-peer network server, and

wherein said communication record is initialized and updated on a runtime basis by said server.