Patent ID: 8266216

Claim:
A method for creating a directory service in a scalable peer-to-peer-network, comprising: distributing the directory service over groups, each group containing at least one peer; forming assignment values to release resources or to search for resources, the assignment values being formed from a predefined address space using an assignment specification, which assignment specification depends on the resource; making only one group responsible for each assignment value; and transferring a release of a resource and/or a search for a resource only to the group responsible wherein a hash method is used as the assignment specification, hash values are calculated using the hash method, the hash values are used as assignment values, IP multicasting is used to direct the release of the resource or the search for the resource only to the group responsible, and the at least one peer is notified that it will be an active member of the group if a predefined threshold value of a load is exceeded.