Method, apparatus, system, and article of manufacture for reliable low-bandwidth information delivery across mixed-mode unicast and multicast networks

摘要

A system and method are provided wherein information is disseminated using a reliable IP multicast network implementation coupled with dynamically assigned proxy nodes serving as zonal aggregation points. These nodes share information with each other over the reliable IP multicast network, augmenting this function with a reliable point-to-point communication infrastructure between proxy nodes in those instances where IP multicast is not available or prone to error.

主权项

1. A method for communication in a network, the method comprising:
receiving information regarding a first node associated with a first player, the first player having associated first player properties; receiving information regarding a second node associated with a second player having associated second player properties, which are either a set of device specific properties or a set of human specific properties; receiving information regarding a third node associated with a third player having associated third player properties, which are either a set of device specific properties or a set of human specific properties, wherein at least one of said players is a human; communicatively coupling said second node to said first node and coupling said third node to said second node, to enable communication between said first, second, and third nodes via an IP multicast network so as to enable a sum of said first, second, and third player properties to form an information base for each of said nodes; in response to one of said nodes becoming disconnected from other ones of said communicatively coupled nodes, updating said information base of each of said other ones of said communicatively coupled nodes to remove the associated player properties of said disconnected node, and updating said information base of said disconnected node to remove the associated player properties of said other ones of said communicatively coupled nodes; and in response to said disconnected node becoming communicatively reconnected to a particular one of said communicatively coupled nodes, updating said information base of said communicatively reconnected node and said particular node and any node communicatively coupled thereto to include the associated player properties of said communicatively reconnected node.