DATA NETWORK TRAFFIC FILTER AND METHOD

摘要

A traffic filter and filtering method for a decentralized peer-to peer data network is disclosed. A decentralized peer-to-peer data network comprises a number of interconnected ultrapeer nodes, each ultrapeer node being arranged to: accept connections from a number of other leaf and ultrapeer nodes; maintain a database identifying material available from each connected leaf node; receive search queries from connected leaf nodes and other ultrapeers, forward received search queries to connected ultrapeers and provide data from the database matching a received search query. The traffic filter (40) includes an ultrapeer node (41-43), a filter module (44) and a protected material database (45). Upon receiving a search query the ultrapeer node (41-43) is arranged to pass the query to the filter module (44), the filter module (44) being arranged to analyze the query in dependence on content in the protected material database (45) to determine if the query relates to protected material, the fïlter module (44) being arranged to filter queries relating to protected material and pass non filtered queries to the ultrapeer node (41-43) for subsequent processing.