Patent ID: 7395536

Claim:
A peer-to-peer network system, comprising: a plurality of peer nodes coupled to a network, wherein the plurality of peer nodes are configured to participate in a distributed computing framework on the network for submitting computational tasks in a distributed heterogeneous networked environment that utilizes peer groups to decentralize task dispatching and post-processing functions and enables a plurality of jobs to be managed and run simultaneously; one of the plurality of peer nodes configured to: broadcast a code advertisement for computer-executable code on the network; provide the computer-executable code to each of the plurality of peer nodes that responds to the code advertisement with a request for code; broadcast a task advertisement on the network for each of a plurality of tasks, wherein each of the tasks is configured to be executed by the code to perform a portion of a job; and assign a different one of the plurality of tasks to each of the plurality of peer nodes that responds to the task advertisement such that two or more of the plurality of tasks are performed on two or more of the plurality of peer nodes in parallel to perform the job; wherein each of the plurality of peer nodes assigned tasks is configured to: perform the particular task assigned by the one of the plurality of peer nodes in accordance with the code received from the one of the plurality of peer nodes; and return results of the task to the one of the plurality of peer nodes after completion of the task.