Patent ID: 7114003

Claim:
A method for delivering content over a network having at least one requesting endpoint and at least one node, wherein the content further comprises a descriptor that enables the at least one node to identify an attribute of the content and wherein the at least one node stores content, the method comprising: launching a request for content from the at least one requesting end point, the step of launching a request comprising: launching the request with a request payload containing one or more instructions on what to locate in the descriptor, wherein the descriptor comprises an ONIX code descriptor and the at least one node further comprises a receiver for receiving the request and identifying an adjacent node from which the request is received; comparing the request payload to the ONIX code descriptor of the content stored at the at least one node; and when the request payload matches the ONIX code descriptor, forwarding the content with the matching ONIX code descriptor to the adjacent node; propagating the request over the network to the at least one node; leaving a trail of the request at the at least one node; and, when content matching the request is located, returning a copy of the content to the at least one requesting endpoint over the trail of the request.