Exploiting Traffic Balancing and Multicast Efficiency in Distributed Video-on-Demand Architectures

Distributed Video-on-Demand (DVoD) systems are proposed as a solution to the limited streaming capacity and null scalability of centralized systems. In a previous work, we proposed a fully distributed large-scale VoD architecture, called Double P-Tree, which has shown itself to be a good approach to the design of flexible and scalable DVoD systems. In this paper, we present relevant design aspects related to video mapping and traffic balancing in order to improve Double P-Tree architecture performance. Our simulation results demonstrate that these techniques yield a more efficient system and considerably increase its streaming capacity. The results also show the crucial importance of topology connectivity in improving multicasting performance in DVoD systems. Finally, a comparison among several DVoD architectures was performed using simulation, and the results show that the Double P-Tree architecture incorporating mapping and load balancing policies outperforms similar DVoD architectures.This work was supported by the MCyT-Spain under contract TIC 2001-2592 and partially supported by the Generalitat de Catalunya- Grup de Recerca Consolidat 2001SGR-00218

Bandwidth Borrowing Schemes for Instantaneous Video-on-Demand Systems

A controlled multicast scheme provides instantaneous service, but limited server bandwidth causes some user requests to be either delayed or rejected when insufficient free bandwidth is available. Two borrowing schemes are proposed for instantaneous video-on-demand (VOD) that reduce the user request blocking rate by borrowing bandwidth from ongoing video streams when there is insufficient free bandwidth for the server to deliver a new video stream. Both these new schemes have proved to be successful in reducing blocking rate and increasing bandwidth utilization at the expense of temporarily degrading the video quality

Providing VCR Functionality in VOD Servers

Resource-sharing techniques are widely used by VOD servers. Stream merging is one of the most efficient resource-sharing techniques. ERMT is able to achieve merge trees with the closest cost of optimal merge tree. Full VCR support has become a “must have” feature for VOD services. This researcher proposed an algorithm to enable VCR support on ERMT. Furthermore, client local buffer and fixed-interval periodical multicasting were also deployed by the algorithm to improve the stream-client ratio. After thorough runs of simulations and numerous comparisons to BEP, the highly efficient resource- sharing technique, the proposed algorithm with client local buffer utilization and fixed- interval multicasting showed better performance in all simulations. The biggest discovery is that the best-performer is modified ERMT with client local buffer support for VCR without fixed-interval multicasting. Another discovery is that bigger client buffer size hurts the performance of ERMT

A Scalable Solution For Interactive Video Streaming

This dissertation presents an overall solution for interactive Near Video On Demand (NVOD) systems, where limited server and network resources prevent the system from servicing all customers’ requests. The interactive nature of recent workloads complicates matters further. Interactive requests require additional resources to be handled. This dissertation analyzes the system performance under a realistic workload using different stream merging techniques and scheduling policies. It considers a wide range of system parameters and studies their impact on the waiting and blocking metrics. In order to improve waiting customers experience, we propose a new scheduling policy for waiting customers that is fairer and delivers a descent performance. Blocking is a major issue in interactive NVOD systems and we propose a few techniques to minimize it. In particular, we study the maximum Interactive Stream (I-Stream) length (Threshold) that should be allowed in order to prevent a few requests from using the expensive I-Streams for a prolonged period of time, which starves other requests from a chance of using this valuable resource. Using a reasonable I-Stream threshold proves very effective in improving blocking metrics. Moreover, we introduce an I-Stream provisioning policy to dynamically shift resources based on the system requirements at the time. The proposed policy proves to be highly effective in improving the overall system performance. To account for both average waiting time and average blocking time, we introduce a new metric (Aggregate Delay) . We study the client-side cache management policy. We utilize the customer’s cache to service most interactive requests, which reduces the load on the server. We propose three purging algorithms to clear data when the cache gets full. Purge Oldest removes the oldest data in the cache, whereas Purge Furthest clears the furthest data from the client’s playback point. In contrast, Adaptive Purge tries to avoid purging any data that includes the customer’s playback point or the playback point of any stream that is being listened to by the client. Additionally, we study the impact of the purge block, which is the least amount of data to be cleared, on the system performance. Finally, we study the effect of bookmarking on the system performance. A video segment that is searched and watched repeatedly is called a hotspot and is pointed to by a bookmark. We introduce three enhancements to effectively support bookmarking. Specifically, we propose a new purging algorithm to avoid purging hotspot data if it is already cached. On top of that, we fetch hotspot data for customers not listening to any stream. Furthermore, we reserve multicast channels to fetch hotspot data

Control evaluation in a LVoD system based on a peer-to-peer multicast scheme

Providing Quality of Service (QoS) in video on demand systems (VoD) is a challenging problem. In this paper, we analyse the fault tolerance on a P2P multicast delivery scheme, called Patch Collaboration Manager / Multicast Channel Distributed Branching (PCM/MCDB) [13]. This scheme decentralizes the delivery process between clients and scales the VoD server performance. PCM/MCDB synchronizes a group of clients in order to create local network channels to replace on-going multicast channels from the VoD server. Using the P2P paradigm supposes facing the challenge of how often peers connect and disconnect from the system. To address this problem, a centralized mechanism is able to replace the failed client. We evaluate the failure management process of the centralized scheme in terms of the overhead injected into the network and analyse the applicability of a distributed approach to managing the process. Analytical models are developed for centralized and distributed approaches. Their behaviour are compared in order to evaluate whether the distributed scheme can improve the fault management process, in terms of reducing server load and generating better scalability.Proporcionar Calidad de Servicio (QoS) en sistemas de Vídeo bajo Demanda (VoD) es un problema desafiador. En este artículo, analizamos la tolerancia a fallos en un esquema de envío de informaciones, basado en comunicaciones multicast y colaboraciones P2P, denominado PCM/MCDB [13]. El esquema descentraliza el proceso de envío de información entre los clientes y escala las prestaciones del servidor de VoD. PCM/MCDB sincroniza un grupo de clientes con objeto de crear canales de redes locales para reemplazar canales multicast en curso del servidor. La aplicación del paradigma P2P supone cómo afrontar el problema de la conexión y desconexión de clientes del sistema. Para resolver este problema, un mecanismo centralizado es capaz de reemplazar el cliente fallido. En el trabajo evaluamos el proceso de gestión de fallos del esquema centralizado en términos del flujo de informaciones insertado en la red y analizamos la aplicabilidad de un esquema distribuido para el proceso de gestión. Modelos analíticos son desarrollados para las aproximaciones centralizada y distribuida. Sus comportamientos son comparados con objeto de evaluar si un esquema distribuido puede mejorar el proceso de gestión de fallos desde el punto de vista de reducir la carga del servidor y proporcionar mejor escalabilidad.VIII Workshop de Procesamiento Distribuido y ParaleloRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI