Abstract: Methods of establishing secure communication channels in peer-to-peer environments are provided that eliminate role conflicts between peers by determining which peer will act as a client and which the peer will act as a server in a secure connection handshake. In one embodiment, an attribute of the handshake messages are used in a tiebreaker process to determine which peer assumes the role of the server. In another embodiment, the attribute may be used to compute a wait period for each peer, or the wait period may be based on a random time period, and the peers cancel their request and resent requests after waiting their respective time periods.

Abstract: Methods of establishing secure communication channels in peer-to-peer environments are provided that eliminate role conflicts between peers by determining which peer will act as a client and which the peer will act as a server in a secure connection handshake. In one embodiment, an attribute of the handshake messages are used in a tiebreaker process to determine which peer assumes the role of the server. In another embodiment, the attribute may be used to compute a wait period for each peer, or the wait period may be based on a random time period, and the peers cancel their request and resent requests after waiting their respective time periods.

Abstract: A method of establishing secure communication channels in peer-to-peer environments is provided, that includes eliminating a role conflict between at least first peer and a second peer, determining which the peer will act as a client and which the peer will act as a server in a secure connection handshake, and when the first peer or the second peer detects a role conflict an attribute of the handshake message is used as a tiebreaker to determine a wait period, where the first peer or the second peer cancels its own requests, drops an incoming request or denies an incoming request and waits a random amount of time before resending the connection request, where a random time interval used by the peers can be different to reduce a chance for role conflict.