Patent ID: 8875207

Claim:
A system comprising: a plurality of content sources configured to receive and store content; and a router in communication with a first subset of the plurality of content sources; wherein, in response to a request for content received by the router, the router queries the first subset of the plurality of content sources for the requested content and, when the requested content is not available from the first subset of the plurality of content sources, the router transmits a query to a next available upstream router to query a larger subset of the plurality of content sources serviced by the next available upstream router, wherein the query is forwarded to one or more further next available upstream routers to query one or more further larger subsets of the plurality of content sources serviced by the one or more further next available upstream routers until either a copy of the requested content is determined to be available in one of the plurality of content sources or a main content source is determined to be closer in distance to the router than a further next available upstream router included in the one or more further next available upstream routers.