Patent ID: 7562151

Claim:
At a computer system in a computer network including one or more networked agents formed into a peer group of peers using at least one peer-to-peer connection, a method of transferring data, the method comprising acts of: receiving a computer readable message from a peer-to-peer network, the computer readable message being a centric message enveloped in a peer-to-peer message, wherein a centric message is defined as a message relying on centralized authority to define network organization and a peer-to-peer message is defined as a message with no central authority defining network organization; determining whether the message is intended for the computer system, or a different computer system in the peer group; in response to a determination that the message is intended for a different computer system in the peer group, sending the message to a plurality of peers that the computer system is aware of within the peer group; in response to a determination that the message is intended for the computer system: extracting the centric message contained within the message; and delivering the centric message to an agent configured for centric type communications in a centric format expected by the agent, such that the agent communicates with other centric type communication agents over the peer-to-peer network without awareness of the peer-to-peer network over which the centric message was communicated.