Managed peer-to-peer file sharing

• US 7,664,861 B2
• Filed: 02/02/2005
• Issued: 02/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/02/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Laboratories Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Minwalla, Nosherwan, Tun, Aung, Blando, Luis R., Yang, Liwen, Crespo, Diego J., Zafar, Shadman, Kassam, Shafiq, Guntupalli, Anil, Aldrey, Raul I., Elberg, Edwin
• Primary Examiner(s): Vaughn, Jr.; William C
• Assistant Examiner(s): RICHARDSON, THOMAS W
• Application Number:
  US11/049,561
• Publication Number:
  US 20060173940A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,840 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/219, 709/231, 709/204, 709/227, 707/206
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1818 Conference organisation arrangements, e.g. handling schedules, setting up parameters needed by nodes to attend a conference, booking network resources, notifying involved parties
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1053 with pre-configuration of logical or physical connections with a determined number of other peers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/108 characterised by resources being split in blocks or fragments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/142 Managing session states for stateless protocols; Signalling session states; State transitions; Keeping-state mechanisms

Abstract

A system and method for managed peer-to-peer (p2p) file sharing. The peer nodes can include a web browser and a p2p agent. The web browser can connect to the Internet and can interface with the p2p agent. The p2p agent provides the file sharing utilities for implementing the p2p network. A web server connected to the Internet can monitor and manage p2p activity, including providing persistent storage for the p2p networks. The web server can interface with a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to provide access to the p2p network for PSTN peer nodes that do not have web browsing capabilities. A method of implementing managed p2p file sharing includes registering users; providing login and logout functions; creating p2p sessions; preparing, forwarding, receiving, accepting and/or rejecting invitations to join p2p sessions; quitting p2p sessions; deleting p2p sessions or selected members of p2p sessions; and sharing and transferring files.

Claims

1. A system for sharing files between a plurality of peer nodes based on a communication between a first network and a second network, the system comprising:

a non web-enabled device configured to communicate a trigger event to the first network, the trigger event comprising a designation of at least one file to be transferred;

a network server configured to interface the first network and the second network, and configured to receive the trigger event from the first network and transmit a notification to the second network based on the triggering event, wherein the second network is a web-enabled network;

a first web-enabled peer node of a plurality of web-enabled peer nodes in communication with the second network, wherein the first peer node is capable of receiving the notification allowing the first web-enabled device to initiate a file sharing session; and

a second web-enabled peer node of the plurality of web-enabled peer nodes in communication with the second network, wherein the second web-enabled peer node is capable of participating in the file sharing session with the first web-enabled peer node based on the first web-enabled peer node receiving the notification,

wherein the network server comprises;

an interface configured to receive the trigger event from the non web-enabled device and to provide the notification to the first web-enabled peer node, the notification being based on the received triggering event and comprising the received designation of the at least one file to be transferred, the trigger event being received after establishment of the file sharing session,

further wherein the non web-enabled device, the network server, and each web-enabled peer node comprise at least a processor.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the first network is a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN);

and the non web-enabled device is a PSTN telephone.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the first web-enabled peer node includes instructions that, when executed, cause the performance of a method of sharing a file with the second web-enabled peer node in the file sharing session, the method comprising:

receiving the notification from the PSTN telephone;

initiating the file sharing session, based on the notification, with the second web-enabled peer node of the plurality of web-enabled peer nodes;

breaking the designated file into blocks;

attaching identification data to a first of the blocks;

broadcasting the first of the blocks from the first web-enabled peer node of the session to at least the second web-enabled peer node of the plurality of web-enabled peer nodes of the session;

propagating an acknowledgement from at least the second web-enabled peer node of the plurality of web-enabled peer nodes when one of the blocks is received by at least the second web-enabled peer node of the plurality of web-enabled peer nodes;

awaiting receipt of the acknowledgement at the first web-enabled peer node; and

iteratively attaching identification to a subsequent block, broadcasting the subsequent block, and awaiting receipt of the acknowledgement.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein awaiting receipt further comprises:

determining whether a predetermined time has elapsed since broadcasting; and

proceeding to iteratively attach, broadcast, and await when the predetermined time has elapsed.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein propagating an acknowledgement further comprises:

determining whether a received block is a duplicate;

ignoring the received block if the received block is a duplicate; and

caching the received block when the received block is not a duplicate.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein caching the received block further comprises:

determining whether a predetermined time has been exceeded since caching;

determining the blocks missing from the cached blocks;

forwarding a request for missing blocks from a peer where the blocks are missing; and

sending the missing blocks from a peer node having the missing blocks based on receipt of the request for missing blocks.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein determining the blocks missing from the cached blocks further comprises determining the blocks for which acknowledgements have been received and that are not cached.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the instructions further comprise broadcasting a complete message from the first web-enabled peer node when all blocks have been broadcast.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the instructions further comprise storing the cached blocks when the complete message is received and no blocks are missing from the cached blocks.

10. The system of claim 3, wherein the instructions further comprise:

preparing a voice mail message upon completion of the file sharing session; and

delivering the voice mail message to the PSTN telephone.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the network server further comprises:

a relay server configured to receive a sendfile request for the designated file from the first web-enabled peer node based on the notification to relay the sendfile request to the second web-enabled peer node, and to transfer the designated file that corresponds to the sendfile request from the first web-enabled peer node to the second web-enabled peer node based on receiving an acknowledgement corresponding to the sendfile request from the second web-enabled peer node.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the network server further comprises:

a relay server configured to receive a request for the designated file from the first web-enabled peer node in response to the notification, to relay the request to the second web-enabled peer node, and to transfer the designated file from the first web-enabled peer node to the second web-enabled peer node.

12. A system for initiating peer-to-peer file sharing, comprising:

a network server comprising an interface configured to receive a trigger event based on a communication transmitted by a non web-enabled device, the trigger event comprising a designation of at least one file to be transferred, and to provide a notification to a first web-enabled peer node of a plurality of web-enabled peer nodes based on receiving the trigger event, the notification comprising the received designation of the at least one file; and

a relay server configured to receive a sendfile request for the designated file from the first web-enabled peer node based on the notification, to relay the sendfile request to a second web-enabled peer node of the plurality of web-enabled peer nodes, and to transfer the designated file that corresponds to the sendfile request from the first web-enabled peer node to the second web-enabled peer node based on receiving an acknowledgement corresponding to the sendfile request from the second web-enabled peer node,

wherein the network server interface receives the trigger event after a file sharing session is established between the first web-enabled peer node and the second web-enabled peer node,

further wherein the network server, the relay server, and each web-enabled peer node comprise at least a processor.