Patent ID: 7900082

Claim:
A method for detecting misbehaviour of a peer node within a peer-to-peer [P2P] network governed according to predefined rules, the method comprises the following steps of: a) choosing a peer node from the P2P network to act as a tester peer; b) sending into the P2P network a testing request message from the tester peer, that testing request message having as target the tester peer itself; c) analysing by the tester peer of the behaviour of the P2P network by collecting any response message related to the testing request message; d) identifying by the tester peer from received response message to the testing request message any discrepancy with properties governed according to the predefined rules; e) in case a misbehaviour is found without being able to identify the misbehaving peer node then choosing a different peer node from the P2P network to act as the tester peer and applying accordingly steps b to d; f) comparing the identification results obtained by the different tester peers to try to identify the misbehaving peer node and in the negative case restarts a detection procedure by choosing another different peer node from the P2P network and applying steps b to f; g) when identifying a misbehaving peer node then discarding it from the P2P network by updating the predefined rules governing the P2P network.