Patent ID: 7742485

Claim:
A method for distributing information in a digital network, wherein the digital network includes nodes coupled by communication links, the method comprising: performing the following at each of a plurality of the nodes which are in a partnership group: maintaining a record of other nodes in the digital network: randomly selecting a deputy node, which associates partner nodes for a target node from the record of other nodes, thereby reducing service load at each of the plurality of nodes, wherein a partner node can transmit segments of a video stream to the target node, and wherein the video stream is divided into segments of uniform length; maintaining a buffer map; wherein the buffer map is a bit sequence of a predetermined length; wherein the length of the bit sequence corresponds to a sliding transmission window which limits the number of segments the partner node may request; and wherein each bit of the buffer map indicates the availability of a corresponding segment at the partner node; exchanging the buffer map with the partner node; and scheduling fetching of segments of the video stream from the Partner node based on the exchanged buffer map, bandwidth of the partner node and available time for the partner node to transmit the segments; and receiving the segments from the partner node.