Protocols for facilitating a peer-to-peer real time network in which network state information and data processing is delegated to user nodes. A virtual space is recursively divided into a plurality of sub-regions represented by a logical tree, with responsibility for leaf nodes delegated to multiple user nodes. A distributed hash table can be used to store leaf node state and identity information. A discovery index protocol is provided for user nodes to effectively identify a user node responsible for a sub-region of interest. Further, a semantic filtering protocol limits communications primarily to other user nodes deemed relevant, so as to constrain bandwidth usage. A broadcast control protocol is provided to increase the number of simultaneous interactions for each user node. A security protocol is also provided to prevent any illegal activity by malicious nodes.