Patent ID: 7165107

Claim:
A peer computing system, comprising: a plurality of peer nodes each configured to provide a redundant instance of a network service for access by other peer nodes in a network; a peer node configured to access the network service by sending messages on a pipe bound to the peer node and to each of the plurality of peer nodes, wherein the pipe represents a virtual communications channel in the network for communicating with the network service; wherein the peer computing system is configured to: route one or more messages on the pipe for the network service from the peer node to an instance of the network service on one of the plurality of peer nodes bound to the pipe; detect that the one of the plurality of peer nodes is not able to provide access to the instance of the service; and route a subsequent one or more messages on the pipe for the network service from the peer node to another instance of the network service provided by another one of the plurality of peer nodes bound to the pipe in response to the one of the plurality of peer nodes not being able to provide access to the instance of the service.