Patent ID: 8276084

Claim:
A method for content delivery in a region of a virtual universe (VU), comprising: detecting a plurality of interactions among avatars; tracking the detected plurality of interactions; examining a load capacity of a server supporting the region of the VU to determine whether the load capacity exceeds a predetermined load threshold; forming a set of subgroups of avatars in the region if the predetermined load threshold is exceeded, each of the set of subgroups containing one or more avatars for which the detecting and tracking is performed; and responsive to the predetermined load threshold being exceeded, if an amount of VU data being transferred to or from the server exceeds a pre-determined bandwidth threshold, transmitting at least some of the amount of VU data between the avatars of a particular one of the set of subgroups using a peer-to-peer broadcast, wherein all of the avatars in the particular one of the set of subgroups are transferring at least some VU data to or from the server, and wherein if the amount of VU data is below the pre-determined bandwidth threshold, not transmitting the amount of VU data between the avatars of the particular one of the set of subgroups.