Abstract: System and method for representing and rate the trustworthiness of peers as providers of content and data (codats) relevant to the peers' interests. In one embodiment, trust may be propagated through transaction pipes (paths) along which codats located in a search for codats relevant to an area of interest may be accessed by the requestor. In some embodiments, the trust a peer has in another peer as a provider of codats may be a function of the trust values of the provider peer and all other peers on a path. If there are multiple paths, trust in the provider peer may be an average of the trust values for all the paths. Trust in a provider peer may be used to determine confidence in codats provided by the peer. Embodiments may provide mechanisms for feeding back trust information to the providing peer and for propagating trust information to other peers.

Abstract: A system and method for establishing communications channels between and among peers in a peer-to-peer networking environment. Pipes may be used as communication channels for sending and receiving messages and other data between services or applications over input and output endpoints. Pipes may be asynchronous, unidirectional, stateless and unreliable. Bidirectional pipes may also be supported. Pipes may have ends that may be moved around and bound to different peers at different times. Point-to-point and propagate pipes may be supported. Pipes may connect peers that have a direct physical link and peers that do not have a direct link. Peers may communicate through pipes without knowing on which peer a pipe endpoint is bound. A message is sent to all peer endpoints currently connected (listening) to the pipe. The set of connected endpoints may be obtained from a pipe service using a pipe binding protocol.

Abstract: A system and method for sending, resolving, and receiving queries for information on the status of network resources. A peer computing system may include one or more resolver nodes on a network for resolving queries for a resource to particular resource instances. The resolver nodes may receive query messages from peer nodes on the network. Each query message may request information about a resource implemented by one or more peer nodes on the network. The query messages may be formatted in accordance with a peer resolver protocol. The resolver node may determine a particular instance of the resource hosted on a particular peer node to receive the query. The resolver node may use a variety of criteria to determine a particular resource instance. The resolver node may forward the query message to the determined resource instance.

Abstract: A system and method for providing secure exchange of messages between peers in peer groups. Embodiments may be used to provide secured sessions between peers in the peer-to-peer network. Embodiments may also be used to provide secured group sessions among a plurality of peers. A first peer may generate and send a public key to a second peer. The second peer may generate a session key from the public key. The second peer may send the session key to the first peer, or alternatively to two or more peers in a group session. The session key may be secured when sending. Messages and/or other data exchanged between the two peers may be encrypted and decrypted using the session key.

Abstract: A system and method for providing resources to networked devices for participating in a peer-to-peer environment. In one embodiment, a peer computing system on a network may include one or more bootstrap nodes that may provide, to devices coupled to the network, mechanisms for accessing resources for participating in the peer-to-peer environment. The bootstrap nodes may be peer nodes. The resources may give the devices access to services each of which may implement peer-to-peer platform protocols. The devices may be pre-configured to access one or more predefined peer nodes for information on bootstrap nodes. Alternatively, devices may use a bootstrapping mechanism to locate bootstrap nodes on the network.

Abstract: Embodiments of a system and method for using mobile agents in peer-to-peer networks to gather presence information for determining active peers in groups of peers. In one embodiment, a mobile agent may be launched by an initiating peer in a peer group to attempt to visit each member peer in a peer group. The itinerary of the mobile agent may include information for accessing each member peer of the peer group. The mobile agent may return to its initiating peer with a payload indicating which of the member peers it was successful in contacting and visiting. When the mobile agent returns to the originating peer, the originating peer may update presence information indicating presence of member peer nodes in the group in accordance with the indications provided by the mobile agent.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are disclosed for accessing messages in a message store in a multi-threaded system with reduced contention by first determining whether a process is available for accepting a new connection and responsibility for that connection is transferred to that process, which includes one or more threads. One thread is selected and initialized which then manages client requests for accessing messages or data in the message store. The thread is terminated when a termination request is received or when a predetermined condition has been met. Also provided is a computer system for accessing messages in a message store in a multi-threaded environment with reduced contention. Clients are connected to a connection request router that contains a parent process for routing client requests for manipulating data. Also included are request handlers associated with the request router where the request handlers include a multiplicity of active connection threads.

Abstract: Embodiments of a system and method for using mobile agents for managing distribution of content in peer-to-peer networks. An initiating peer node may launch a mobile agent including an itinerary of a group of peer nodes configured to receive and share content from a distributor. The mobile agent may visit the peer nodes on the itinerary to search for and collect information on distributor content stored on the visited peer nodes. The mobile agent may return the payload to the initiating peer node after completing the itinerary. In one embodiment, the mobile agent may include authentication information, and each visited peer node may access the authentication information to verify the mobile agent as authorized by the distributor. The initiating peer node may examine the information provided by the mobile agent to detect unauthorized copies of the distributor content.

Abstract: Embodiments of a mechanism for implementing mobile agents in peer-to-peer networks. An initiating peer may generate a mobile agent to perform one or more tasks on or gather information from other peers in the peer-to-peer network. The mobile agent may include an itinerary of peers that the mobile agent may visit. The mobile agent may be transmitted on communications channels in the peer-to-peer network to each peer on the itinerary in turn, and return to the initiating peer after visiting or attempting to visit each peer on the itinerary. In one embodiment, the mobile agent may traverse its itinerary via virtual communication channels (pipes) implemented according to a peer-to-peer platform. A mobile agent may include information identifying input pipes for each peer on its itinerary. Peers may generate and advertise input pipes for use by mobile agents.

Abstract: Embodiments of a system and method for using mobile agents for collaborative content control in peer-to-peer networks. A peer may launch a mobile agent including an itinerary of peers to be visited and indications of one or more documents that the peers are collaboratively editing. The mobile agent may visit peers indicated by the itinerary to collect version information for the document(s). The mobile agent may return the version information to the initiating peer, which may coordinate each of the document(s) on the peer to a most recent version in accordance with the version information provided by the mobile agent. Visited peers may use the payload to determine if their version of the document(s) are up to date and, if not, may add a version update request to the payload. The initiating peer may send the most recent version information to peers that added version update requests to the payload.

Abstract: Embodiments of a system and method for using mobile agents to gather trust information for evaluating trust in peer-to-peer networks. A peer node may launch a mobile agent on a network including an itinerary of peer nodes to be visited by the mobile agent and an indication of an area of interest. The mobile agent may determine if a visited peer node stores trust evaluations for other peer nodes as providers of codats relevant to the area of interest and, if so, the trust evaluations may be stored as payload data in the mobile agent. After completing the itinerary, the mobile agent may return the payload to the initiating peer node. The initiating peer node may use the trust evaluations collected by the mobile agent in determining or adjusting trust evaluations for peer nodes as providers of codats relevant to the area of interest.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that provides virtual transport layer security on a virtual network to facilitate peer-to-peer communications. The system creates a first pipe that functions as a one-way input channel into a first peer. Next, the system associates a first peer identifier with the first pipe and advertises the availability of this first pipe. A second peer connects to this first pipe to communicate with the first peer. The system also creates a second pipe at the second peer, and a second peer identifier is associated with this second pipe. The first peer connects to this second pipe to communicate with the second peer. The first pipe and the second pipe form a virtual connection through which the first peer and the second peer can communicate securely.

Abstract: A system and method for providing secure exchange of messages between peers in peer groups. Embodiments may be used to provide secured sessions between peers in the peer-to-peer network. Embodiments may also be used to provide secured group sessions among a plurality of peers. A first peer may generate and send a public key to a second peer. The second peer may generate a session key from the public key. The second peer may send the session key to the first peer, or alternatively to two or more peers in a group session. The session key may be secured when sending. Messages and/or other data exchanged between the two peers may be encrypted and decrypted using the session key.

Abstract: Embodiments of a decentralized, distributed trust mechanism that may be used in peer-to-peer platforms, to implement trust relationships based on data relevance between peers on a network and to implement trust relationships between peers and content and data (codat). In one embodiment, the trust mechanism may provide a trust spectrum of multiple levels wherein unique peer identities may be established to enable authentication and the assignment of the peers' associated access policies within a peer group. In one embodiment, the trust spectrum may have Certificate Authority signed certificates as a maximum level of security, and self-signed certificates as a minimum level of security. Since a certificate is one form of codat, in one embodiment the trust mechanism may be applied to a peer group member's collection of signed certificates for a given peer group.

Abstract: System and method for representing and rate the trustworthiness of peers as providers of content and data (codats) relevant to the peers' interests. In one embodiment, trust may be propagated through transaction pipes (paths) along which codats located in a search for codats relevant to an area of interest may be accessed by the requestor. In some embodiments, the trust a peer has in another peer as a provider of codats may be a function of the trust values of the provider peer and all other peers on a path. If there are multiple paths, trust in the provider peer may be an average of the trust values for all the paths. Trust in a provider peer may be used to determine confidence in codats provided by the peer. Embodiments may provide mechanisms for feeding back trust information to the providing peer and for propagating trust information to other peers.

Abstract: Embodiments may provide mechanisms for representing trust between peers or systems in decentralized networking environments including peer-to-peer networking environments. Trust may include both direct trust between two peers and trust in a pipeline of peers along which codat may be passed. Embodiments may provide a mechanism for a peer to represent and rate the trustworthiness of other peers as providers of codat relevant to the peer's interest. To evaluate trust in another peer as a provider of codats in the area of interest, trust may be represented with two components, confidence and risk. Embodiments may provide mechanisms for measuring the components and determining trust from the components. Embodiments may also provide mechanisms for feeding back trust information to the providing peer and for propagating trust information to other peers.

Abstract: Embodiments of a decentralized, distributed trust mechanism that may be used in various networking platforms including peer-to-peer platforms, to implement trust relationships between and among nodes on a network and to implement trust relationships between nodes and content and data (codat). Protocols and methods may be provided for determining, disseminating and updating trust. For participating nodes, trust may be biased towards data relevance. Trust may have multiple components or factors, which may include node confidence, codat confidence and risk components, and embodiments may provide for the inclusion of factors of trust based on groups of nodes' common interests and/or group content relevance. Embodiments may be used for a variety of applications in which trust may be based on the norm for social interaction between participating nodes.

Abstract: A system and method for providing resources to networked devices for participating in a peer-to-peer environment. In one embodiment, a peer computing system on a network may include one or more bootstrap nodes that may provide, to devices coupled to the network, mechanisms for accessing resources for participating in the peer-to-peer environment. The bootstrap nodes may be peer nodes. The resources may give the devices access to services each of which may implement peer-to-peer platform protocols. The devices may be pre-configured to access one or more predefined peer nodes for information on bootstrap nodes. Alternatively, devices may use a bootstrapping mechanism to locate bootstrap nodes on the network.

Abstract: A system and method for establishing communications channels between and among peers in a peer-to-peer networking environment. Pipes may be used as communication channels for sending and receiving messages and other data between services or applications over input and output endpoints. Pipes may be asynchronous, unidirectional, stateless and unreliable. Bidirectional pipes may also be supported. Pipes may have ends that may be moved around and bound to different peers at different times. Point-to-point and propagate pipes may be supported. Pipes may connect peers that have a direct physical link and peers that do not have a direct link. Peers may communicate through pipes without knowing on which peer a pipe endpoint is bound. A message is sent to all peer endpoints currently connected (listening) to the pipe. The set of connected endpoints may be obtained from a pipe service using a pipe binding protocol.

Abstract: A peer-to-peer platform that may provide mechanisms through which peers may discover each other, communicate with each other, and cooperate with each other to form peer groups is described. The peer-to-peer platform may comprise several layers including a peer-to-peer platform layer, a peer-to-peer services layer, and a peer-to-peer applications layer. At the highest abstraction level, the peer-to-peer platform may be viewed as a set of protocols. Each protocol may be defined by one or more messages exchanged among participants of the protocol. In one embodiment, the peer-to-peer platform may include, but is not limited to, one or more of a peer discovery protocol, a peer resolver protocol, a peer information protocol, a peer membership protocol, a pipe binding protocol, and an endpoint routing protocol. To underpin this set of protocols, the peer-to-peer platform may define a number of concepts including peer, peer group, advertisement, message, pipe, and endpoint.