Abstract: A method is provided for use in a computer system that is operating in a peer-to-peer environment. The peer-to-peer environment has a host peer and at least one non-host peer. The method of the invention is used to order the operation requests of the peers so that operations are performed only in the order that they are processed by the host peer. The method includes providing a list of recognized operations which may be requested by any of the peers in the session. The host peer then receives at least one operation request from one of the peers, the request being selected from the provided list. The host then assigns a unique version number to the operation request, so that all peers within the session can determine the proper order in which to process orders given by the host peer.

Abstract: A networking protocol that supports the sending of reliable and non-reliable data in a common sliding window. Data to be transmitted according to the protocol is packaged into packets, where each packet has a header. Each packet carries a sequence number in the header, where the sequence numbers are successively assigned to each outgoing packet. As the packets are received, the recipient of the packets keeps track of the sequence numbers of received packets to determine whether any packets are missing and selectively acknowledges those packets that have been received. The selective acknowledgment is performed using a mask, where each bit in the mask indicates the presence or absence of a packet as an offset from a reference value. Based on the mask, the sender re-sends non-received reliable packets, and creates a second mask which indicates non-reliable non-received packets that will not be re-sent.

Abstract: A method is provided for use in a computer system that is operating in a peer-to-peer environment. The peer-to-peer environment has a host peer and at least one non-host peer. The method of the invention is used to order the operation requests of the peers so that operations are performed only in the order that they are processed by the host peer. The method includes providing a list of recognized operations which may be requested by any of the peers in the session. The host peer then receives at least one operation request from one of the peers, the request being selected from the provided list. The host then assigns a unique version number to the operation request, so that all peers within the session can determine the proper order in which to process orders given by the host peer.