Packet transfer mechanism over a peer to peer network

• US 7,277,950 B1
• Filed: 12/28/2001
• Issued: 10/02/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Swarmcast, Inc.
• Inventors: Chapweske, Justin Falconer
• Primary Examiner(s): Cardone; Jason
• Assistant Examiner(s): HOSSAIN, TANIM M
• Application Number:
  US10/033,305
• Time in Patent Office: 2,104 Days
• Field of Search: 709/219, 709/227, 709/203, 709/205, 709/231, 713/193
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/182 Distributed file systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1868 Measures taken after transmission, e.g. acknowledgments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1048 Departure or maintenance mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/108 characterised by resources being split in blocks or fragments

Abstract

An apparatus, method and system to improve data transfer across a communications network by employing an acknowledgment independent equalized data packet transfer mechanism on a peer-to-peer basis. The present disclosure teaches how many computers can send data to many other computers, with particularity on a peer-to-peer basis when desired, without requiring acknowledgements of safe receipt by the receiving computer. By aggregating several computers to send data in a collection to a requesting computer, transfer rates may be increased. Further, by not requiring acknowledgment of receipt from the receiving computer, and by treating all data packets with equal utility, the present disclosure teaches a mechanism that reduces file transfer administration bandwidth, increases file transfer scalability on demand, and increases overall network transfer efficiency.

Claims

1. A network method for distributing data to a plurality of computers, comprising:

sending a first portion of the data to a first computer;

sending a second portion of the data to a second computer, where the second portion includes at least some of the data not sent to the first computer;

after sending to the first computer and the second computer has commenced, sending a request for the data from a requesting computer to a targeted computer system;

accessing a look-up list to identify at least the first and second computers that have previously requested the data;

prior to receiving all of the data at the first and second computers, sending requests to the identified first and second computers;

sending the first portion of the data from the first computer to the requesting computer;

sending at least some of the second portion of the data from the second computer to the requesting computer;

receiving, with the requesting computer, the first portion of the data from the first computer;

receiving, with the requesting computer, at least some of the second portion of the data from the second computer, the data received from the second computer including at least some of the data not sent to the first computer; and

saving the data in memory of the requesting computer to recreate the requested data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein data transmission is accomplished from the computers over a peer-to-peer network, wherein the computers that previously requested and downloaded at least a portion of the requested data are peers with the requesting computer.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein encoded packets are relayed.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the look-up list is populated with nodes based on data transfer rates.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the look-up list is populated with nodes based on data types stored within the nodes.

6. The method of claim 1,

wherein the look-up list is a mesh list that records which partial portions of the data each of the other computers has received, and

wherein accessing the look-up list to identify the other computers includes selecting the identified computers based on the record of which partial portions of the data each of the other computers has received.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

re-encoding each of the first and second portions at the identified first and second client computers using an acknowledgement independent equalized data packet encoding scheme that is a FEC encoding, and

decoding the FEC encoded portions from the identified first and second client computers to recreate the requested data.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the data that is to be encoded is segmented before encoding.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the received encoded packets are decoded, and then re-encoded for further transmission upon request.

10. A method of using a computer for transferring data, comprising:

receiving a request for data from a requesting computer;

accessing a look-up list to identify peer computers that have previously downloaded at least a portion of the requested data;

sending requests to the identified other peer computers, wherein at least two of the identified peer computers have downloaded different partial portions of the requested data upon receiving the requests, and wherein the at least two identified peer computers includes a first peer computer that has downloaded at least a first partial portion and a second peer computer that has downloaded at least a second partial portion without downloading all of the first partial portion;

encoding the different partial portions of the requested data at the identified computers for network transmission, and

sending the encoded different partial portions of the data from at least two different ones of the peer computers to the requesting computer and completing the download of the data at the identified peer computers.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein data transmission is accomplished over a peer-to-peer network.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein encoded packets are relayed.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the look-up list is populated with nodes based on data transfer rates.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the look-up list is populated with nodes based on data types stored within the nodes.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the look-up list is a mesh list.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the acknowledgement independent equalized data packet encoding scheme is a FEC encoding.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein the data that is to be encoded is segmented before encoding.

18. A method of using a computer for transferring data from a set of peer computers to a requesting computer, comprising:

receiving a request for data at a source computer;

maintaining a list of peer computers that have previously downloaded at least a portion of the data, wherein the list records which partial portions of the data each of the other computers has received;

selecting a set of the peer computers based on the record of which partial portions of the requested data each of the peer computers has downloaded, wherein the set of peers includes a first peer computer that has downloaded at least a first partial portion downloaded and a second peer computer that has downloaded at least a second partial portion without downloading the first partial portion;

independently encoding the different portions of the data at the peer computers prior to receiving all of the data at the peer computers; and

sending the encoded different portions of the data from at least two different ones of the peer computers to the requesting computer and completing the download of the remaining portions of the data with the peer computers.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein data transmission is accomplished over a peer-to-peer network.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein encoded packets are relayed.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the list is populated with nodes based on data transfer rates, and wherein each node represents a different one of the peer computers.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein the list is populated with nodes based on data types stored within the nodes, and wherein each node represents a different one of the peer computers.

23. The method of claim 18, wherein the list is a mesh list.

24. The method of claim 18, wherein encoding comprises encoding with FEC encoding.

25. The method of claim 18, wherein the data that is to be encoded is segmented before encoding.

26. A method of using a computer for dynamically transferring data, comprising:

sending a request for data to a targeted computer capable of servicing the request;

receiving encoded data packets from at least two different sending computers that have previously downloaded different portions of the data from the targeted computer, wherein the sending computers include a first sending computer that has downloaded at least a first partial portion and a second sending computer that has downloaded at least a second partial portion without downloading all of the first partial portion, wherein the sending computers send the downloaded different portions of the data and complete downloading of the remaining portions of the data;

decoding the received encoded data; and

saving the decoded data in memory.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein data transmission is accomplished over a peer-to-peer network.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein the encoded packets are relayed.

29. The method of claim 26, further comprising maintaining at the targeted computer a list of the computers that have previously downloaded at least a portion of the requested data, wherein the list is populated with nodes based on data transfer rates.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the list is populated with nodes based on data types stored within the nodes, and wherein each of the nodes represents a different one of the computers.

31. The method of claim 29, wherein the list is a mesh list.

32. The method of claim 26, wherein the encoded packets are encoded with an acknowledgement independent equalized data packet encoding scheme.

33. The method of claim 26, wherein the data that is to be encoded is segmented before encoding.

34. The method of claim 26, wherein the received encoded packets are decoded, and then re-encoded for further transmission upon request.

35. A system for using a computer for transferring data, comprising:

means to send a request for data from a requesting computer to a targeted computer;

means to access a look-up list to identify other computers that have previously downloaded at least a portion of the requested data from the targeted computer, wherein the other computers includes a first peer computer that has downloaded at least a first partial portion and a second peer computer that has downloaded at least a second partial portion having at least some data different from the first partial portion;

means to send requests to the identified computers;

means to send the first partial portion of the data from the first peer computer and at least some of the second partial portion from the second peer computer to the requesting computer and complete downloading of the remaining portions of the data within the identified computers;

means to receive the different partial portions of the data from identified computers;

means to save the data in memory.

36. The system of claim 35, wherein data transmission is accomplished over a peer-to-peer network.

37. The system of claim 35, wherein the data is relayed.

38. The system of claim 35, wherein the look-up list is populated with nodes based on data transfer rates, and wherein each of the nodes represents a different one of the computers that have previously downloaded the data, and wherein the data transfer rates represents data transfer rates at which the data was previously downloaded to the computers.

39. The system of claim 35, wherein the look-up list is populated with nodes based on data types stored within the nodes.

40. The system of claim 35, wherein the look-up list is a mesh list.

41. The system of claim 35, further comprising means to encode the data at the identified computers using an acknowledgement independent equalized data packet encoding scheme prior to sending.

42. The system of claim 41, wherein the acknowledgement independent equalized data packet encoding scheme is a FEC encoding.

43. The system of claim 41, wherein the received encoded packets are decoded at the requesting computer, and then re-encoded for further transmission upon request.

44. A system for using a computer for transferring data, comprising:

means to receive a request for data from a computer;

means to access a look-up list to identify a set of peer computers that have previously requested and downloaded at least a portion of the data, wherein the set of peer computers includes a first peer computer that has downloaded at least a first partial portion downloaded and a second peer computer that has downloaded at least a second partial portion without downloading all of the first partial portion;

means to initiate transfer of the previously downloaded portions of data from identified computers to the requesting computer, wherein the identified computers have only downloaded different partial portions of the requested data; and

means to send the portions of the data from the identified computers to the requesting computer and complete downloading of the remaining portions of the data.

45. The system of claim 44, wherein data transmission is accomplished over a peer-to-peer network, and wherein the computers that have previously downloaded the data are peers with the requesting computer.

46. The system of claim 44, wherein the sending means includes means for encoding and relaying packets.

47. The system of claim 44, wherein the look-up list is populated with nodes based on data transfer rates.

48. The system of claim 44, wherein the look-up list is populated with nodes based on data types stored within the nodes.

49. The system of claim 44, wherein the look-up list is a mesh list.

50. The system of claim 44, further comprising:

means to independently encode the different partial portions of the data at the identified computers using an acknowledgement independent equalized data packet encoding scheme,

wherein the acknowledgement independent equalized data packet encoding scheme is a FEC encoding.

51. The system of claim 44, wherein the data that is to be encoded is segmented before encoding.

52. A system for transferring data from a set of peer computers to a requesting computer, comprising:

means to receive at a source computer a request to download data, wherein the source computer maintains a list of peer computer that have previously downloaded at least a portion of the data, wherein the list of peer computers specifies a first peer computer and a second peer computer, wherein, at the time of the request, the first peer computer has downloaded a first portion and the second peer computer has downloaded a second portion without downloading all of the first portion;

means to encode the data at the peer computers for network data transmission;

means to send the encoded data from the peer computers to a requesting computer and complete the download of the remaining portions of the data.

53. The system of claim 52, wherein data transmission is accomplished over a peer-to-peer network.

54. The system of claim 52, wherein encoded packets are relayed.

55. The system of claim 52, wherein the list is populated with nodes based on data transfer rates.

56. The system of claim 52, wherein the list is populated with nodes based on data types stored within the nodes.

57. The system of claim 52, wherein the list is a mesh list.

58. The system of claim 52, wherein the acknowledgement independent equalized data packet encoding scheme is a FEC encoding.

59. The system of claim 52, wherein the data that is to be encoded is segmented before encoding.

60. A system for dynamically transferring data from a set of peer computers to a requesting computer, comprising:

means to send a request for data to a targeted computer capable of servicing the request;

means to receive data packets from sending computers that have previously downloaded different portions of the data from the targeted computer, wherein the sending computers include a first peer computer that has downloaded a first portion and a second peer computer that has downloaded a second partial portion without downloading all of the first portion, wherein the sending computers send the data packets of the downloaded different portions and complete the download of the remaining portions of the data;

means to decode the received data; and

means to save the decoded data memory.

61. The system of claim 60, wherein data transmission is accomplished over a peer-to-peer network.

62. The system of claim 60, wherein encoded packets are relayed.

63. The system of claim 60, further comprising means for maintaining at the targeted computer a list of the computers that have previously downloaded at least a portion of the requested data, wherein the list is populated with nodes based on data transfer rates.

64. The system of claim 63, wherein the list is populated with nodes based on data types stored within the nodes.

65. The system of claim 63, wherein the list is a mesh list.

66. The system of claim 60, wherein the data packets are encoded using an acknowledgement independent equalized data packet encoding scheme.

67. The system of claim 60, wherein the data that is to be encoded is segmented before encoding.

68. The system of claim 60, wherein the received encoded packets are decoded, and then re-encoded for further transmission upon request.

69. A program stored on a medium readable by a processor, the program comprising:

a module to send a request for data to a targeted computer system;

a look-up list that references other peer computers that previously downloaded different partial portions of the requested data and initiates transfer from the identified peer computers to the requesting computer while the identified peer computers complete the download of the remaining portions of the data, the peer computers including a first peer computer that has downloaded a first portion of the data and a second peer computer that has downloaded a second portion of the data without downloading all of the first portion;

a module to receive the encoded data from identified peer computers;

a module to decode the received encoded data; and

a module to save the decoded data in memory.

70. The medium of claim 69, wherein data transmission is accomplished over a peer-to-peer network.

71. The medium of claim 69, wherein encoded packets are relayed.

72. The medium of claim 69, wherein the look-up list is populated with nodes based on data transfer rates.

73. The medium of claim 69, wherein the look-up list is populated with nodes based on data types stored within the nodes.

74. The medium of claim 69, wherein the look-up list is a mesh list.

75. The medium of claim 69, wherein the peer computers use an acknowledgement independent equalized data packet encoding scheme.

76. The medium of claim 75, wherein the data that is to be encoded is segmented before encoding.

77. The medium of claim 75, wherein the received encoded packets are decoded, and then re-encoded for further transmission upon request.

78. A program stored on a medium readable by a processor, the program comprising:

a module to receive a request for data from a requesting computer having one or more peer computers;

a module to identify which of the peer computers have previously requested and downloaded the data; and

a module to send requests to the identified peer computers to direct the peer computers to encode the data using an acknowledgement independent equalized data packet encoding scheme and send the encoded data to the requesting computer,

wherein the identified computers have received different partial portions of the requested data, wherein the identified computers include a first peer computer has downloaded at least a first portion and a second peer computer that has downloaded a second portion without downloading all of the first portion, and wherein the identified computers send the encoded data to the requesting computer and complete the download of the remaining portions of the requested data.

79. The medium of claim 78, wherein data transmission is accomplished over a peer-to-peer network.

80. The medium of claim 78, wherein encoded packets are relayed.

81. The medium of claim 78, further comprising a module that maintains a look-up list that identifies the peer computers that previously downloaded the data, wherein the look-up list is populated with nodes based on data transfer rates.

82. The medium of claim 81, wherein the look-up list is populated with nodes based on data types stored within the nodes.

83. The medium of claim 81, wherein the look-up list is a mesh list.

84. The medium of claim 78, wherein the acknowledgement independent equalized data packet encoding scheme is a FEC encoding.

85. The medium of claim 78, wherein the data that is to be encoded is segmented before encoding.

86. A program stored on a medium readable by a processor of a first peer computer of a peer to peer network, the program comprising:

a module to download data from a source computer;

a module to receive a request to transfer at least some of the data to a second peer computer, wherein the module receives the request after downloading a first portion of the data and before completing the download of the data, wherein, at the time of the request, the first peer computer has downloaded the first portion and the second peer computer has downloaded a second portion without downloading all of the first portion;

a module to encode the previously downloaded first portion of the data; and

a module to send the encoded data to the second peer computer and complete the download of any remaining portion of data.

87. The medium of claim 86, wherein data transmission is accomplished over a peer-to-peer network.

88. The medium of claim 86, wherein encoded packets are relayed.

89. The medium of claim 86, wherein the source computer maintains a look-up list that lists the peer computers having previously downloaded the data, and wherein the look-up list is populated with nodes based on data transfer rates.

90. The medium of claim 89, wherein the look-up list is populated with nodes based on data types stored within the nodes.

91. The medium of claim 89, wherein the look-up list is a mesh list.

92. The medium of claim 86, wherein the encoding scheme is a FEC encoding.

93. The medium of claim 86, wherein the data that is to be encoded is segmented before encoding.

94. A program stored on a medium readable by a processor of a computer having a plurality of peer computers, the program comprising:

a module to send a request for data to a targeted computer capable of servicing the request;

a module to receive encoded data packets from the peer computers that previously downloaded different partial portions of the data from the targeted computer and have not completed the download, the module configured to receive data packets from at least a first peer computer that has downloaded a first portion and a second peer computer that has downloaded a second portion without downloading all of the first portion, wherein the sending computers send the data packets of the downloaded different portions and complete the download of the remaining portions of the data;

a module to decode the received encoded data; and

a module to save the decoded data in memory.

95. The medium of claim 94, wherein data transmission is accomplished over a peer-to-peer network.

96. The medium of claim 94, wherein encoded packets are relayed.

97. The medium of claim 94, wherein the targeted computer maintains a look-up list is populated with nodes based on data transfer rates.

98. The medium of claim 94, wherein the targeted computer maintains a look-up list is populated with nodes based on data types stored within the nodes.

99. The medium of claim 94, wherein the targeted computer maintains a look-up list is a mesh list.

100. The medium of claim 94, wherein the encoding is a FEC encoding.

101. The medium of claim 94, wherein the data that is to be encoded is segmented before encoding.

102. The medium of claim 94, wherein the received encoded packets are decoded, and then re-encoded for further transmission upon request.

103. A network, transmission apparatus comprising:

a processor;

a memory communicatively connected to the processor;

a program, stored in the memory, including,

a module to send a request for data to a targeted computer system;

a look-up list that references other peer computers that previously downloaded portion of the requested data, wherein the list of peer computers specifies that a first peer computer and a second peer computer, the first peer computing having downloaded at least a first portion and the second peer computer having downloaded at least a second portion without downloading all of the first portion;

a module that initiates transfer from the identified peer computers to the requesting computer using an encoding scheme;

a module to receive the encoded data from identified peer computers, wherein the identified computers have received different partial portions of the requested data from the targeted computer system, and wherein the identified peer computers send encoded partial portions of the data and complete downloading the remaining portions of the data from the targeted computer system;

a module to decode the received encoded data; and

a module to save the decoded data in memory.

104. The apparatus of claim 103, wherein data transmission is accomplished over a peer-to-peer network.

105. The apparatus of claim 103, wherein encoded packets are relayed.

106. The apparatus of claim 103, wherein the look-up list is populated with nodes based on data transfer rates.

107. The apparatus of claim 103, wherein the look-up list is populated with nodes based on data types stored within the nodes.

108. The apparatus of claim 103, wherein the look-up list is a mesh list.

109. The apparatus of claim 103, wherein the encoding scheme is an acknowledgement independent equalized data packet encoding scheme.

110. The apparatus of claim 103, wherein the data that is to be encoded is segmented before encoding.

111. The apparatus of claim 103, wherein the received encoded packets are decoded, and then re-encoded for further transmission upon request.

112. A network transmission apparatus, comprising:

a processor;

a memory, communicatively connected to the processor;

a program, stored in the memory, including;

a module to receive a request for data from a requesting computer having one or more peer computers;

a module to identify which of the peer computers have previously requested and downloaded the data; and

a module to send requests to the identified peer computers to direct the peer computers to send the data to the requesting computer,

wherein the identified peer computers have downloaded different partial portions of the requested data, and the identified peer computers include a first peer computer that has downloaded a first portion and a second peer computer has downloaded a second partial portion without downloading all of the first portion,

and wherein the identified computers send the data to the requesting computer and complete downloading the remaining portions of the requested data.

113. The apparatus of claim 112, wherein data transmission is accomplished over a peer-to-peer network.

114. The apparatus of claim 112, wherein the data is relayed.

115. The apparatus of claim 112, wherein the program further comprises a module that maintains a lookup list, wherein the look-up list is populated with nodes based on data transfer rates.

116. The apparatus of claim 112, wherein the program further comprises a module that maintains a lookup list, wherein the look-up list is populated with nodes based on data types stored within the nodes.

117. The apparatus of claim 112, wherein the program further comprises a module that maintains a lookup list, wherein the look-up list is a mesh list.

118. The apparatus of claim 112, wherein the module that sends the requests to the identified peer computers further directs the peer computers to encode the data using an acknowledgement independent equalized data packet encoding scheme.

119. The apparatus of claim 118, wherein the data that is to be encoded is segmented before encoding.

120. A network transmission apparatus, comprising:

a processor;

a memory, communicatively connected to the processor;

a program, stored in the memory, including,

a module to download data from a source computer;

a module to receive a request from the source computer to transfer the data to a peer computer that has already downloaded one or more portions of the data, wherein the module receives the request after downloading a portion of the data that includes at least some data different from the data downloaded by the peer computer;

a module to encode the previously downloaded partial portion of the data; and

a module to send the encoded partial portion of the data to the peer computer and complete the download of the remaining portion of the data.

121. The apparatus of claim 120, wherein data transmission is accomplished over a peer-to-peer network.

122. The apparatus of claim 120, wherein encoded packets are relayed.

123. The apparatus of claim 120, wherein the source computer maintains a look-up list that is populated with nodes based on data transfer rates.

124. The apparatus of claim 120, wherein the source computer maintains a look-up list that is populated with nodes based on data types stored within the nodes.

125. The apparatus of claim 120, wherein the source computer maintains a look-up list that is a mesh list.

126. The apparatus of claim 120, wherein the acknowledgement independent equalized data packet encoding scheme is a FEC encoding.

127. The apparatus of claim 120, wherein the data that is to be encoded is segmented before encoding.

128. A network transmission apparatus, comprising:

a processor;

a memory, communicatively connected to the processor;

a program, stored in the memory, including,

a module to send a request for data to a targeted computer capable of servicing the request;

a module to receive data packets from at least a first peer computer that has downloaded a first portion and a second peer computer that has downloaded a second portion without downloading all of the first portion,

a module to decode the received data; and

a module to save the data in memory.

129. The apparatus of claim 128, wherein data transmission is accomplished over a peer-to-peer network.

130. The apparatus of claim 128, wherein packets are relayed.

131. The apparatus of claim 128, wherein the targeted computer maintains a look-up list that is populated with nodes based on data transfer rates.

132. The apparatus of claim 128, wherein the targeted computer maintains a look-up list that is populated with nodes based on data transfer rates.

133. The apparatus of claim 128, wherein the targeted computer maintains a look-up list that is a mesh list.

134. The apparatus of claim 128, wherein the data packets are encoded using an acknowledgement independent equalized encoding scheme.

135. The apparatus of claim 128, wherein the data that is to be encoded is segmented before encoding.

136. The apparatus of claim 128, wherein the received encoded packets are decoded, and then re-encoded for further transmission upon request.

137. A method for distributing a data within a computer network, the method comprising:

storing, at a starting computer, original data;

maintaining a table to store at least an address of computers that can transmit portions of the stored data;

receiving requests for the data from a first requesting computer and a second requesting computer;

delivering a first portion of data from the starting computer to the first requesting computer;

delivering a second portion of the data to the second requesting computer; and

prior to delivering all of the data to either the first requesting computer or the second requesting computer, exchanging the first portion and the second portion of the data between the first requesting computer and the second requesting computer.

138. A download method for a file in a computer network comprising:

storing, at a starting computer, a file;

receiving a first file download request from a first computer;

downloading, from the starting computer, a first portion of the file to the first computer;

upon downloading the first portion of the file at the first computer, updating a table to record that the first portion of the file was received;

receiving a second download request from a second computer;

downloading a second portion of the file to the second computer, the first portion containing at least some data of the original file not contained within the second portion;

upon downloading the second portion of the file at the second computer, updating a table to record that the second portion of the file was received;

issuing a request from the second computer to the first computer for the data of the file not contained within the second portion; and

prior to downloading the entire file at the first computer, communicating, from the first computer to the second computer, at least some of the data of the original file not contained within the second portion.

139. The method of claim 138, further comprising completing the download of the file at the first computer and the second computer by downloading one or more remaining portions of the file.