Patent ID: 7623534

Claim:
A method for disseminating content over an overlay network having a plurality of routers in communication with providers and consumers of content, the method comprising: receiving, at a first router in an overlay network, a content descriptor corresponding to a content published by a first publisher; generating a hash identifier based on the content descriptor at the first router in the overlay network; generating, at the first router, a publisher interface list associated with the first publisher; transmitting the hash identifier and the publisher interface list to a plurality of subsequent routers in the overlay network, wherein queries received by the subsequent routers that correspond to the content will be routed to the first router based on the hash identifier and the publisher interface list; receiving, at one of the plurality of subsequent routers, a content descriptor corresponding to content from a second publisher, wherein the content descriptor and the content from the second publisher are the same as the content descriptor and the content from the first publisher; and updating the publisher interface list only in the one of the plurality of subsequent routers based on receiving the content descriptor corresponding to the content from the second publisher, wherein queries corresponding to the content received at the one of the plurality of subsequent routers is routed to the first router and to the second publisher based on the updated publisher interface list in the one of the plurality of subsequent routers.