Patent ID: 7778273
Filing Date: 2010-08-17
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. One or more computer-readable media storing instructions for a node to perform a process for communicating with other nodes, each node comprising a computing device, each node respectively hosting a local application-level multicasting (ALM) module, any given one of the nodes participating in plural multicasting sessions where whichever of the nodes participate in a session send and receive multicast transmissions to each other via their respective local ALM modules, the local ALM module of any node configured to be used by arbitrary applications executing on that node, each ALM module comprising an application that uses its corresponding host node's underlying IP implementation to send and receive the multicast transmissions between nodes, the process performed by the local ALM module of the given node comprising: maintaining information identifying sessions the given node is participating in, each session comprising a different set of other nodes which are connected via their respective local ALM modules, where an application running on the given node uses the local ALM module of the given node to multicast to the other nodes in a session and the application uses the local ALM module of the given node to receive multicasts from the other nodes in the session; performing application-level routing, including: maintaining and using node connections including: