Patent ID: 8108481

Claim:
A system for sharing data within a network, comprising: a plurality of peer devices including a first peer device in data communication with the network, each respective peer device of the plurality of peer devices comprising: local cache storage configured to store data comprising at least one entry designated as network accessible cache data; and a cache control module operative to control access to the data stored in the local cache storage, wherein each respective cache control module of each respective peer device exchanges with other cache control modules of other peer devices index information cataloging network accessible cache data stored in the respective peer device's local cache storage; a second peer device of the plurality of peer devices in data communication with the first peer device via the network, wherein the second peer device is configured to request network accessible cache data stored in the local cache storage of the first peer device; wherein the cache control module of the second peer device is configured to search and retrieve desired network accessible cache data by referencing the respective index information of the respective cache control module of the first peer device.