METHODS AND ARRANGEMENTS FOR PRIORITIZATION IN A PEER-TO-PEER NETWORK

摘要

The present invention relates to nodes and methods for use in connection with a peer-to-peer network for sharing of data content. A priority mechanism is introduced by means of which a serving peer may select which requesting peers to serve based on their need for data content in terms of the degree of urgency. A requesting peer may include an urgency indicator in a request for data content, which for instance may be the amount of buffered data available for playback in a video buffer. The serving peer may then extract (52) the urgency indicator from the request and apply (53) a priority mechanism which uses the urgency indicator to select which peers to upload data content to.