Patent ID: 7379428

Claim:
An autonomous system topology based auxiliary network augmenting a peer-to-peer (P2P) overlay network having a plurality of peer nodes, comprising: a plurality of autonomous system spaces, each wherein a distinct subset of the plurality of peer nodes belongs to each of the plurality of autonomous system spaces, and the P2P overlay network overlays the plurality of autonomous system spaces; an expressway node in each of the autonomous system spaces, the expressway node is one of the peer nodes in the each autonomous system space chosen based on one of its forwarding capacities and connections with one or more other peer nodes in accordance with characteristics of at least one physical network underlying the P2P overlay network; wherein a first one of the expressway nodes in a first one of the plurality of autonomous system spaces is configured to establish an expressway connection with a second one of the expressway nodes in a second one of the plurality of autonomous system spaces to route information between the first and second autonomous system spaces; and at least one ordinary node in each of the plurality of autonomous system spaces, wherein the one ordinary node in the first autonomous system space is configured to establish an ordinary connection with the the first expressway node to route information from the first autonomous system space to the second autonomous system space via the first and second expressway nodes.