Patent ID: 8200826

Claim:
A method for determining whether to accept an incoming network connection in a network comprising a plurality of participants, the method comprising: compiling a set of local information in a first portion of a local memory in a first participant, the first participant being referred to as the local participant, wherein the set of local information includes information about network connections made to the local participant; updating other participants in the network using the set of local information, the other participants being referred to as remote participants and wherein the updating occurs at a first interval; receiving updates at the local participant from the remote participants, wherein each of the updates includes information about network connections made to the respective remote participants and wherein the updates are received at intervals that are independent of the first interval; using the received updates to update a set of remote information in a second portion of the local memory in the first participant, the set of remote information including the information about network connections made to the respective remote participants; receiving a request for a new incoming network connection to the local participant; and determining whether to accept the new incoming network connection based on the set of local information at the local participant and based on the set of remote information at the local participant.