Patent · US Active

Peer-to-peer download and seed policy management

US8738778B2 · kind B2 · utility

5Cited by
8References
24Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateApr 26, 2007
Grant dateMay 27, 2014
Priority date
Expiry dateNov 23, 2027

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L67/60
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Transfer policy management methods in a peer-to-peer networking environment such as BitTorrent are provided. A download TPM maximizes the usage of available bandwidth, while focusing on as few torrents as possible. For a given list of torrents, a peer in accordance with the present invention determines how many download connections to maintain at a given time in order to maximize usage of bandwidth. If the variance of per-connection bandwidths exceeds a threshold, more connections are added until either variance does not exceed the threshold or a maximum number of connections are established. A seeding peer determines when to reduce the number of files being seeded by monitoring its average upload rate per torrent. If its average rate falls below a threshold, then the peer stops seeding a file. The file that the peer stops seeding is one to which the peer is making the smallest overall contribution.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.