Balanced network and method

Abstract

A low-latency, high-bandwidth, and highly scalable method delivers data from a source device to multiple communication devices on a communication network. Under this method, the communication devices (also called player nodes) provide download and upload bandwidths for each other. In this manner, the bandwidth requirement on the data source is significantly reduced. Such a data delivery network is scalable without limits with the number of player nodes. In one embodiment, a computer network includes (a) a source server that provides a data stream for delivery in the computer network, (b) player nodes that exchange data with each other to obtain a complete copy of the data stream, the network nodes being capable of dynamically joining or exiting the computer network, and (c) a control server which maintains a topology graph representing connections between the source server and the player nodes, and the connections among the player nodes themselves. In one embodiment, the control server is associated with a network address (e.g., an IP address) known to both the source server and the player nodes. The data stream may include, for example, a real-time broadcast of a sports event.