In the meantime, here's some light reading:

http://www.researchgate.net/publication/221034643_A_Pattern_Language_for_Overlay_Networks_in_Peer-to-Peer_Systems

“The contributions of this paper are twofold. First, it presents a complete pattern language for overlay networks, consisting of simple new patterns as well as adaptations of existing patterns. Second, it suggests several proto-patterns, which have not yet been documented, but belong to the fundamental building blocks of overlay networks.”


Cheers

Graham