Symmetrical Bi-Directional Communication Protocol for Peer-to-Peer Networks over HTTP (DEAL 314)

This lot is generally related to a symmetrical bi-directional communication between peer-to-peer networked computers. Disclosed are techniques for two way communications to provide improved symmetrical communication compatible with the HTTP protocol. Disclosed is a technique of network node communication by engaging first and second network nodes in an asymmetric hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) transactional session having an underlying network connection. Each node plays a distinct initial transactional role such as an HTTP server that relays data and an HTTP client which initiates requests. The system terminates the asymmetric HTTP transactional session while maintaining said underlying network connection. The first and second network nodes negotiates transactional role reversal and communicates under a reversed asymmetric transactional protocol so that each network node plays the initial transactional role of the other. The system uses a network connection traversing hardware for enforcing asymmetric communication by the uniquely identifiable session. The technology may be implemented in peer-to-peer communications systems, file sharing systems, content delivery systems, multimedia sharing systems, etc.