A COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK

摘要

A distributed communications network comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of user devices, wherein each node comprises: a communications device for establishing bi- directional wireless communication with at least one user device, a communications device for establishing bi-directional communication with at least one other node; and a data processor in association with a local memory for storing information for presentation to users, and wherein at least one of the nodes further includes a communications device connected to a further communications network, and wherein nodes are grouped into clusters that cooperate with one another such that if a user requests information which is held in the local memory of a node within a cluster then the nodes cooperate to supply that information to the user and if a connection between a user and the further communications network is required, the nodes cooperate to establish it.