Wondering How Leaf Networks Work?
The Leaf 2006 client software uses "Out-of-Band TCP Signaling" to form a TCP connection between two computers
running the Leaf 2006 client software. This out-of-band signaling is achieved by creating a control channel
that is setup using the Leaf Peer Server and used to broker all the TCP signaling traffic. Once the TCP
connection is formed, the control channel is torn down and there is a direct TCP connection between each
computer.
Once this socket connection is formed, it is used to create a virtual private network (VPN) interface that
you see as the Leaf Network Adapter on your computer. Most VPN solutions that tunnel traffic over a TCP socket
connection suffer from performance degradation - up to 40% loss in bandwidth. However, we have solved this
problem and you will achieve full bandwidth connectivity between two computers connected in a Leaf Network.
Once the private network is formed, we protect it with a built in firewall for the Leaf Network Adapter.
Once the private network is formed, we allow you to load various plugins. The plugins listen for various types
of traffic on your network, such as XBOX, UPnP, TiVO, etc., and act like protocol routers. The plugins will
pick up the traffic off your network and route it to the specified members. The peer plugin on the receiver side
takes the traffic and injects it into the network of the selected member. As a result, LAN traffic from one network
can be routed to another LAN so that the LAN are joined for the select traffic service. This mean, one members
XBOX can see the other members XBOX, one members Window Media Connect (Server) can be seen by another members
Windows Media Receiver or Digital Media Receiver.
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