Patent ID: 7474656

Claim:
A method of operating a communication network to transfer data between nodes of the communication network, the communication network comprising a first node that includes first self-replicating code comprising software used in the data transfer, and also comprises at least a second node and a third node that do not initially include the software used in the data transfer, the method comprising the steps of: executing the first self-replicating code in the first node to establish a communication channel with the second node, to replicate the first self-replicating code to generate second self-replicating code comprising the software used in the data transfer, and to provide the second self-replicating code to the second node over the communication channel; executing the second self-replicating code in the second node to establish the communication channel with the third node, to replicate the second self-replicating code to generate third self-replicating code comprising the software used in the data transfer, and to provide the third self-replicating code to the third node over the communication channel; receiving streaming data for the data transfer in the second node from the first node over the communication channel and executing the second self-replicating code in the second node to replicate the streaming data received from the first node, and to route the replicated streaming data to a payload process in the second node; and receiving the streaming data in the third node from the second node over the communication channel and executing the third self-replicating code in the third node to replicate the streaming data received from the second node, and to route the replicated streaming data to a payload process in the third node.