Patent ID: 7016883

Claim:
A method of operating a reverse caching system wherein residential end-users are coupled to access links, the access links are coupled to the reverse caching system, the reverse caching system is coupled to a core communication network, and the residential end-users host content files for transfer over the access links and the core communication network, the method comprising: monitoring residential end-user communications to cache transferred ones of the content files in the reverse caching system when the transferred ones of the content files are transferred from the residential end-users over the access links to the core network; monitoring the residential end-user communications to identify requests for requested ones of the content files cached in the reverse caching system; in response to identifying the requests for the requested ones of the content files cached in the reverse caching system, determining if the requested ones of the content files cached in the reverse caching system are available for concurrent use; and in response to determining that the requested ones of the content files cached in the reverse caching system are available for concurrent use, transferring the requested ones of the content files from the reverse caching system to the core communication network.