Patent ID: 7623472

Claim:
A method for discovering and maintaining information on a plurality of peer applications within a network, said method comprising: maintaining a list of active peer applications on each peer application of said plurality of peer applications, said plurality of peer applications operating on a plurality of peer devices, said plurality of peer devices connected to said network; intermittently broadcasting a multicast packet containing information describing a source peer application on said network, each peer application of said plurality of peer applications intermittently operating as said source peer application relative to a receiving group of peer applications, said receiving group of peer applications comprising said plurality of peer applications within said network excluding said source peer application; intermittently receiving said multicast packet by at least one recipient peer application of said receiving group of peer applications; intermittently updating said list of active peer applications on said at least one recipient peer application based on said multicast packet broadcast by said source peer application; determining by said at least one recipient peer application that said source peer application is suspected of being inactive if said at least one recipient peer application does not receive said intermittently broadcast multicast packet from said source peer application within a particular period of time; transmitting a request from said at least one recipient peer application to said source peer application if said source peer application is determined to be suspected of being inactive; receiving said request from said at least one recipient peer application at said source peer application if said source peer application is operational on said network; transmitting a response to said request by said source peer application to said at least one recipient peer application if said source peer application is operational on said network; receiving said response to said request from said source peer application by said at least one recipient peer application if said source peer application is operational on said network; and updating said list of active peer applications on said at least one recipient peer application based on said response to said request of said source peer application such that a lack of said response to said request from said source peer application indicates that said source peer application is inactive.