MECHANISM FOR PEER-TO-PEER FILE SHARING BY INDIVIDUAL CLIENT NETWORKING APPLICATIONS

摘要

A mechanism for peer-to-peer file sharing by individual client networking applications is disclosed. A method of the invention includes sending to a server computing machine a request to access data by a networking application of a client computing machine; identifying to the server computing machine an ability of the client computing machine to seed data to peers of the client computing machine, receiving at the networking application a list of contact information of one or more peers of the client computing machine that have at least a portion of the requested data, selecting by the networking application one or more peers from the received list to download the data from, wherein the selection is prioritized based on a geographic proximity of the one or more peers to the client computing machine, and requesting by the networking application the content from the selected one or more peers.