Patent ID: 7610402
Filing Date: 2009-10-27
Classification: A63F,H04L

Abstract:
1. A peer-to-peer relay network, comprising: a plurality of N peer systems, wherein each peer system is either a participant or a spectator and the peer-to-peer network includes at least one participant and at least one spectator; wherein each peer system in said peer-to-peer relay network is connected to a number of other peer systems in said peer-to-peer relay network that is less than or equal to a connection limit, said connection limit is greater than or equal to 2, said connection limit is less than or equal to N−2, each peer system in said peer-to-peer relay network is configured to relay data to peer systems connected to that peer system according to a set of one or more relay rules, wherein a participant is configured to generate data to be relayed in said peer-to-peer relay network, and a spectator is configured to relay data generated by a participant, and wherein the spectator is not authorized to generate new data to be relayed in the peer-to-peer network and the spectator is not authorized to send the new data to be relayed throughout the peer-to-peer network.