Patent ID: 7065548
Filing Date: 2006-06-20
Classification: G08G,H04L

Abstract:
1. A method of growing a network and distributing data using the network, the network including one or more production nodes that send data, and a plurality of consumer nodes, wherein each consumer node receives data from one or more production nodes or at least one other consumer node, comprising: (a) providing first software that resides on each of the consumer nodes, wherein the first software on each given consumer node: (b) providing second software that resides on each of the one or more production nodes; wherein, for each given production node, the second software transmits data from the given production node to a requesting consumer node in response to a request for data issued by said requesting consumer node only if the given production node can itself fulfill at least a portion of the request issued by the requesting consumer node; (c) adding a new node to the network when the new node requests data from at least one consumer node or at least one production node; (d) using the first software residing on a first consumer node to issue a first request for data to the at least one consumer node or the at least one production node; (e) in response to receipt of the first request by the at least one consumer node or the at least one production node: (f) after step (e), and independent of said first request, using the first software residing on a second consumer node to issue a second request to the first consumer node for data; and (g) in response to receipt of the second request, using the first software residing on the first consumer node to transmit to the second consumer node at least a portion of data requested by the second request only if the first consumer node can fulfill at least a portion of the second request itself.