Patent ID: 8108455

Claim:
A peer-to-peer network system, comprising: an initiating peer node, comprising a processor, configured to: generate an itinerary for a mobile agent, wherein, to generate an itinerary, the initiating peer node is configured to: discover over the peer-to-peer network an advertisement of a unidirectional peer-to-peer mobile agent input pipe for each of a plurality of peer nodes in the peer-to-peer network, wherein the discovered advertisements each indicate the unidirectional peer-to-peer mobile agent input pipe for each corresponding peer node that is configured to receive mobile agents, wherein each unidirectional peer-to-peer mobile agent input pipe is generated by its corresponding peer node; and generate the itinerary from the discovered advertisements, wherein the generated itinerary includes a list of unidirectional peer-to-peer mobile agent input pipes for receiving the mobile agent, wherein each unidirectional peer-to-peer mobile agent input pipe corresponds to a different one of the peer nodes on the itinerary; generate the mobile agent including the itinerary indicating the plurality of peer nodes in the peer-to-peer network to be visited by the mobile agent, wherein the mobile agent further includes a function configured to be performed at each peer node indicated by the itinerary; and send the mobile agent to the unidirectional peer-to-peer mobile agent input pipe corresponding to a first peer node of the plurality of peer nodes indicated by the itinerary; the first peer node, comprising a second processer, configured to: receive the mobile agent via its corresponding unidirectional peer-to-peer mobile agent input pipe; perform the function as indicated by the mobile agent; and send the mobile agent to the unidirectional peer-to-peer mobile agent input pipe corresponding to a next peer node of the plurality of peer nodes indicated by the itinerary.