2,137 research outputs found
A Comprehensive Analysis of Swarming-based Live Streaming to Leverage Client Heterogeneity
Due to missing IP multicast support on an Internet scale, over-the-top media
streams are delivered with the help of overlays as used by content delivery
networks and their peer-to-peer (P2P) extensions. In this context,
mesh/pull-based swarming plays an important role either as pure streaming
approach or in combination with tree/push mechanisms. However, the impact of
realistic client populations with heterogeneous resources is not yet fully
understood. In this technical report, we contribute to closing this gap by
mathematically analysing the most basic scheduling mechanisms latest deadline
first (LDF) and earliest deadline first (EDF) in a continuous time Markov chain
framework and combining them into a simple, yet powerful, mixed strategy to
leverage inherent differences in client resources. The main contributions are
twofold: (1) a mathematical framework for swarming on random graphs is proposed
with a focus on LDF and EDF strategies in heterogeneous scenarios; (2) a mixed
strategy, named SchedMix, is proposed that leverages peer heterogeneity. The
proposed strategy, SchedMix is shown to outperform the other two strategies
using different abstractions: a mean-field theoretic analysis of buffer
probabilities, simulations of a stochastic model on random graphs, and a
full-stack implementation of a P2P streaming system.Comment: Technical report and supplementary material to
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7497234
On the Optimization of BitTorrent-Like Protocols for Interactive On-Demand Streaming Systems
This paper proposes two novel optimized BitTorrent-like protocols for
interactive multimedia streaming: the Simple Interactive Streaming Protocol
(SISP) and the Exclusive Interactive Streaming Protocol (EISP). The former
chiefly seeks a trade-off between playback continuity and data diversity, while
the latter is mostly focused on playback continuity. To assure a thorough and
up-to-date approach, related work is carefully examined and important open
issues, concerning the design of BitTorrent-like algorithms, are analyzed as
well. Through simulations, in a variety of near-real file replication
scenarios, the novel protocols are evaluated using distinct performance
metrics. Among the major findings, the final results show that the two novel
proposals are efficient and, besides, focusing on playback continuity ends up
being the best design concept to achieve high quality of service. Lastly,
avenues for further research are included at the end of this paper as well.Comment: 20 page
Collusion in Peer-to-Peer Systems
Peer-to-peer systems have reached a widespread use, ranging from academic and industrial applications to home entertainment. The key advantage of this paradigm lies in its scalability and flexibility, consequences of the participants sharing their resources for the common welfare. Security in such systems is a desirable goal. For example, when mission-critical operations or bank transactions are involved, their effectiveness strongly depends on the perception that users have about the system dependability and trustworthiness. A major threat to the security of these systems is the phenomenon of collusion. Peers can be selfish colluders, when they try to fool the system to gain unfair advantages over other peers, or malicious, when their purpose is to subvert the system or disturb other users. The problem, however, has received so far only a marginal attention by the research community. While several solutions exist to counter attacks in peer-to-peer systems, very few of them are meant to directly counter colluders and their attacks. Reputation, micro-payments, and concepts of game theory are currently used as the main means to obtain fairness in the usage of the resources. Our goal is to provide an overview of the topic by examining the key issues involved. We measure the relevance of the problem in the current literature and the effectiveness of existing philosophies against it, to suggest fruitful directions in the further development of the field
On the optimization of bittorrent-like protocols for interactive on-demand streaming systems
This paper proposes two novel optimized BitTorrent-like protocols for interactive multimedia streaming:
the Simple Interactive Streaming Protocol (SISP) and the Exclusive Interactive Streaming Protocol (EISP).
The former chiefly seeks a trade-off between playback continuity and data diversity, while the latter is
mostly focused on playback continuity. To assure a thorough and up-to-date approach, related work is
carefully examined and important open issues, concerning the design of BitTorrent-like algorithms, are
analyzed as well. Through simulations, in a variety of near-real file replication scenarios, the novel
protocols are evaluated using distinct performance metrics. Among the major findings, the final results
show that the two novel proposals are efficient and, besides, focusing on playback continuity ends up being
the best design concept to achieve high quality of service. Lastly, avenues for further research are included
at the end of this paper as well
Genet: A Quickly Scalable Fat-Tree Overlay for Personal Volunteer Computing using WebRTC
WebRTC enables browsers to exchange data directly but the number of possible
concurrent connections to a single source is limited. We overcome the
limitation by organizing participants in a fat-tree overlay: when the maximum
number of connections of a tree node is reached, the new participants connect
to the node's children. Our design quickly scales when a large number of
participants join in a short amount of time, by relying on a novel scheme that
only requires local information to route connection messages: the destination
is derived from the hash value of the combined identifiers of the message's
source and of the node that is holding the message. The scheme provides
deterministic routing of a sequence of connection messages from a single source
and probabilistic balancing of newer connections among the leaves. We show that
this design puts at least 83% of nodes at the same depth as a deterministic
algorithm, can connect a thousand browser windows in 21-55 seconds in a local
network, and can be deployed for volunteer computing to tap into 320 cores in
less than 30 seconds on a local network to increase the total throughput on the
Collatz application by two orders of magnitude compared to a single core
Digital Transformation in Insurance Sector
New technologies allow for a significant increase in efficiency, effectiveness and a reduction of costs. The life insurance industry in India has undergone massive changes since 2000 when the industry was liberalized. The future looks interesting for the industry with changes in the way business is conducted and the customer-friendly measures that have been put in place. Due to new entrants, changing consumer behaviors, and technological innovations need to innovate new business model in insurance. These papers discuss how insurers can use the digitization opportunity to deliver greater value to their customers and gain a competitive advantage. Insurers can engage more intensely with existing customers and attract newer customers with innovative products, improve both profitability and growth
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