Patent ID: 8010633

Claim:
A network environment supporting multiple peer-to-peer relay networks, comprising: a main peer-to-peer relay network including all peer systems in the multiple peer-to-peer relay networks, at least one of the peer systems including at least one processor, the main peer-to-peer network having sub-networks within the main peer-to-peer relay network, wherein each peer system of a sub-network is also a member of the main peer-to-peer relay network; a first peer-to-peer relay network including a plurality of first peer systems that are a first sub-network of the main peer-to-peer relay network, at least one of said first peer systems including at least one processor, and including a first particular peer system and a second particular peer system; a second peer-to-peer relay network including a plurality of second peer systems that are a second sub-network of the main peer-to-peer network, at least one of said second peer systems including at least one processor, and including the first particular peer system and the second particular peer system; and wherein the first particular peer system has a connection to the second particular peer in the first peer-to-peer relay network and the first particular peer system does not have a connection to the second particular peer in the second peer-to-peer relay network, and wherein a message addressed from a peer in the first peer-to-peer relay network to another peer in the first peer-to-peer relay network is relayed only to peers in the first peer-to-peer relay network, and wherein a message addressed from a peer in the first peer-to-peer relay network to a peer in the main peer-to-peer relay network before the first sub-network is established is relayed to all peers in the main peer-to-peer relay network.