Patent ID: 8082331

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for optimized message multicasting, comprising: in a communications network having a structured overlay in which client nodes are interlinked to define a ring, designating one of the client nodes in a logical segment of the ring as a content-provider node; communicating a message to the content-provider node, the message being associated with a topic; responsively to the message, consulting an interest-aware membership service to identify a set of the client nodes in the logical segment as subscribing client nodes of the topic; dividing the logical segment into logical subsegments having terminal nodes; pruning ones of the terminal nodes that are not subscribing client nodes until the logical subsegments comprise at least one qualified logical subsegment that includes and is bounded by an outermost one of the subscribing client nodes; recursively performing the steps of designating one of the client nodes as a new content-provider node, dividing the logical segment into logical subsegments, and pruning, using the at least one qualified logical subsegment as the logical segment; and multicasting the message from the content-provider node only to instances of the new content-provider node.