Patent ID: 7657648

Claim:
A method for a node in a network, the method comprising: entering a mesh overlay network that enables data retrieval via a pull mechanism; attaching to a tree overlay network that includes a subset of nodes forming a tree-based backbone that provides a data stream via a push mechanism; receiving data blocks of a data stream over the tree-based backboned of the tree overlay network via the push mechanism; for missed data blocks of the data stream that are not received over the tree-based backbone of the tree overlay network, retrieving the missed data blocks over the mesh overlay network via the pull mechanism; determining an age of the node based at least on time elapsed since an arrival time of the node in at least one of the mesh overlay network and/or the tree overlay network; obtaining a session length for the data stream; computing a temporal stability threshold responsive to the session length and the arrival time; checking if the age of the node satisfies the temporal stability threshold; and if the age of the node does satisfy the temporal stability threshold, joining tree-based backbone to provide the data stream via the push mechanism.