Patent ID: 8356338

Claim:
A peer-to-peer file sharing system, comprising: a first wireless device comprising first circuitry configured to connect to a first host device, instruct the first host device to enumerate the first wireless device as a first locally attached mass storage device, and wirelessly transmit a first registration request to register with a communication network, wherein the first registration request includes a first device identifier that identifies the first wireless device; a second wireless device comprising second circuitry configured to connect to a second host device, instruct the second host device to enumerate the second wireless device as a second locally attached mass storage device, and wirelessly transmit a second registration request to register with the communication network, wherein the second registration request includes a second device identifier that identifies the second wireless device; a service system comprising third circuitry configured to receive the first device identifier and the second device identifier, query a database with the first device identifier and the second device identifier to determine how the first wireless device and the second wireless device may utilize the communication network, and configure the communication network to operatively couple the first wireless device to the second wireless device and prevent the first wireless device and the second wireless device from utilizing other services provided by the communication network; the second circuitry of the second wireless device configured to wirelessly transmit information about common data for delivery to the first wireless device over the communication network, wherein the common data is stored on the second host device; the first circuitry of the first wireless device configured to receive the information about the common data, provide the information about the common data to the first host device as if the common data were stored on the first locally attached mass storage device, receive retrieval instructions from the first host device to retrieve the common data from the first locally attached mass storage device, and responsively transfer a request for the common data for delivery to the second wireless device over the communication network based on the retrieval instructions; the second circuitry of the second wireless device configured to receive the request for the common data, receive the common data from the second host device based on the request for the common data, and transfer the common data for delivery to the first wireless device over the communication network; and the first circuitry of the first wireless device configured to receive the common data transmitted from the second wireless device and provide the common data to the first host device.