Patent ID: 7577110

Claim:
A method, comprising: establishing a peer to peer connection between a plurality of peers including a core peer and a plurality of node peers, the plurality of peers connected to an audio source configured to transmit and receive audio to and from each of the plurality of peers, the core peer configured to transmit and receive audio directly to and from the audio source, the plurality of node peers configured to transmit and receive audio to and from the audio source through the core peer, wherein some node peers are closer to the core node than other node peers in the peer to peer connection; monitoring the plurality of node peers when the audio source transmits audio to identify one or more node peers that frequently transmit audio to the audio source and to identify one or more node peers that do not transmit audio to the audio source; clustering the one or more node peers that frequently transmit audio to the audio source to form active node peers; clustering the one or more node peers that do not transmit audio to the audio source to form passive node peers; and dynamically moving the active node peers closer to the core node, and moving the passive node peers away from the core node in the peer to peer connection.