US Patent 10404781 Flow characteristic based peer-to-peer system

In one embodiment, there is provided a device implementing a leecher peer, the device including a processor to request a list of seeder peers from a tracker, receive the list, select a first seeder peer from the list from which to download at least part of a content item, start downloading the at least part of the content item from the first seeder peer, receive a message from the first seeder peer indicating a deterioration in an upload flow characteristic of the first seeder peer, in response to receiving the message, request an updated list of seeder peers, receive the updated list, select a second one of the seeder peers from the updated list from which to download another part of the content item, cease downloading the content item from the first seeder peer, and start downloading the other part of the content item from the second seeder peer.