Patent ID: 7836016

Claim:
A method for advertising new content available for sharing by a first node in a network, said method comprising: detecting, at said first node, new content stored locally at said first node, wherein said detecting is performed automatically by said first node; sending, automatically by said first node, a new content message to at least one neighbor node of said first node, said new content message advertising an availability of said new content at said first node; and storing, by said first node, said new content message, wherein a time-to-live value associated with said new content message is chosen so as to limit a number of times that said new content message is forwarded, said time-to-live value is chosen dynamically by said first node in accordance with one or more network conditions, wherein the time-to-live value is smaller than time-to-live values associated with other data transfer-related messages sent within the network; and resending said new content message at least once by said first node, wherein information contained in said new content message remains consistent each time said new content message is resent; wherein a frequency with which said new content message is resent by said first node is at least partially based on how many other nodes in said network have requested said new content from said first node, such that said frequency is inversely proportional to a number of times that said new content has been requested by the other nodes.