Patent ID: 7990947

Claim:
A network communications method utilizing a network watermark process, the network watermark process comprising the step of creating a verifiable communications path through a network of nodes between a first end node and a second end node, the verifiable communications path being collectively created, (a) by the first end node performing the step of sending an outgoing communication including an identification of the second end node to an immediately succeeding node in the verifiable communications path; (b) by each of one or more respective intermediate nodes between the first end node and the second end node in the verifiable communications path, performing the steps of, (i) receiving, by the respective intermediate node, an incoming intermediate communication from an immediately preceding node, the incoming intermediate communication including path data, (ii) verifying the incoming intermediate communication that is received by the respective intermediate node from the immediately preceding node, and (iii) upon the successful verification of the incoming intermediate communication from the immediately preceding node by the respective intermediate node, sending by the respective intermediate node an outgoing intermediate communication to an immediately succeeding node, the outgoing intermediate communication including path data that at least identifies a network communications path from the first end node to the respective intermediate node; and (c) by the second end node performing the steps of, (i) receiving an incoming communication from the immediately preceding node, the incoming communication including path data that at least identifies a network communications path from the first end node to the immediately preceding node, (ii) verifying the incoming communication that is received from the immediately preceding node, and (iii) validating the communications path through the network of nodes between the first end node and the second end node.