Patent ID: 8341458

Claim:
A peer-to-peer storage system comprising: a plurality of peer-to-peer storage nodes, each peer-to-peer storage node storing a copy of data such that the copy of the data has a consistency guarantee across the peer-to-peer storage system in that regardless of which peer-to-peer storage node from which the copy of the data is retrieved, the copy of the data is identical; a consistency freeze/thaw component at each peer-to-peer storage node, responsive to an indication of a communication failure between any two peer-to-peer storage nodes of the plurality of peer-to-peer storage nodes, to initiate a consistency freeze action in which the copy of the data is maintain at a current state and is not permitted to change, wherein the consistency freeze action is initiated responsive to the indication of the communication failure prior to expiration of a current group lease period concerning at least the copy of the data, wherein the consistency freeze action is initiated by the consistency freeze/thaw component at each peer-to-peer storage node under a timing constraint related to local clocks at the peer-to-peer storage nodes without a common system clock of the peer-to-peer storage system as a whole, and wherein the timing constraint takes into account a worst-case time difference among the local clocks due at least to varying local clock rate drifts and local lock rate jitter.