US 7,321,928 B2
Super peering architecture
Eric Feltin, London (United Kingdom); Chris Nelson, London (United Kingdom); and Simon Blackburn, London (United Kingdom)
Assigned to Switchfire Limited, London (United Kingdom)
Filed on Nov. 21, 2001, as Appl. No. 9/989,718.
Claims priority of application No. 0028474.5 (GB), filed on Nov. 22, 2000.
Prior Publication US 2003/0126245 A1, Jul. 03, 2003
Int. Cl. G06F 15/16 (2006.01); G06F 17/60 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 709—223  [709/204; 709/206; 709/227; 709/228; 709/229; 709/246; 709/248; 705/37; 705/26] 1 Claim
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of operating a peer-to-peer network with a first peer and a second peer, wherein the first peer is a super-peer, which is adapted to perform a co-operative role, comprising:
a) the super-peer receiving notification that the co-operative role is requested;
b) the super-peer establishing contact with the second peer; and
c) providing co-operation between the first and second peers;
wherein the co-operative role is a holding role to store data for the benefit of the second peer, where the holding role includes the steps of the super-peer;
d) receiving data;
e) recording the received data as stored data;
f) receiving requests for the stored data from users of the network or a process running on the network;
g) retrieving the stored data based on the request; and
h) transmitting the stored data to the requesting user or process;
wherein the stored data corresponds to links to other peers; and
wherein the links constitute a neural network having statistical attributes which indicate characteristics of the link.