Step 6. 
Cache Operation

When Omneo P2P receives a content request, it first checks to see if the content is resident in the cache.  If it is, Omneo P2P serves the content out of the cache, saving the bandwidth and transmission latency that would otherwise be incurred by retrieving the content from it’s origin node.  If the content is not resident in cache, Omneo P2P issues a GET request from the origin P2P node. (5a.) Omneo P2P receives the content (5b.), stores it in cache, and simultaneously serves the content to the requesting node (6.).  This ‘quantized’ store and forward technique ensures that very little latency is introduced by the Omneo P2P caching process the first time a specific piece of content is requested; thereafter, the full benefits of caching are enjoyed for all subsequent requests by any P2P user for that content.

The Operational Cache

Cache Management

Maintenance of Omneo P2P is completely automatic.  When any content changes on the origin P2P, the filename hash value associated with that content changes automatically when the content is shared on the network, as described above.  FastTrack 2.0 ensures that all client requests are based upon the origin node hash values for content, rather than on any cached values.  Therefore, content refreshing in the cache occurs automatically; when a file has been changed, the filename is changed as well, and no longer matches any cached filename for that content.  Omneo P2P then refreshes the cache accordingly in the process of serving the requested content to the requesting user.  Expired hash file names in cache are discarded according to a Last Recently Used (LRU) algorithm, and are not subsequently accessed.