20,483 research outputs found
Exploring heterogeneity of unreliable machines for p2p backup
P2P architecture is a viable option for enterprise backup. In contrast to
dedicated backup servers, nowadays a standard solution, making backups directly
on organization's workstations should be cheaper (as existing hardware is
used), more efficient (as there is no single bottleneck server) and more
reliable (as the machines are geographically dispersed).
We present the architecture of a p2p backup system that uses pairwise
replication contracts between a data owner and a replicator. In contrast to
standard p2p storage systems using directly a DHT, the contracts allow our
system to optimize replicas' placement depending on a specific optimization
strategy, and so to take advantage of the heterogeneity of the machines and the
network. Such optimization is particularly appealing in the context of backup:
replicas can be geographically dispersed, the load sent over the network can be
minimized, or the optimization goal can be to minimize the backup/restore time.
However, managing the contracts, keeping them consistent and adjusting them in
response to dynamically changing environment is challenging.
We built a scientific prototype and ran the experiments on 150 workstations
in the university's computer laboratories and, separately, on 50 PlanetLab
nodes. We found out that the main factor affecting the quality of the system is
the availability of the machines. Yet, our main conclusion is that it is
possible to build an efficient and reliable backup system on highly unreliable
machines (our computers had just 13% average availability)
Modeling and Evaluation of Multisource Streaming Strategies in P2P VoD Systems
In recent years, multimedia content distribution has largely been moved to the Internet, inducing broadcasters, operators and service providers to upgrade with large expenses their infrastructures. In this context, streaming solutions that rely on user devices such as set-top boxes (STBs) to offload dedicated streaming servers are particularly appropriate. In these systems, contents are usually replicated and scattered over the network established by STBs placed at users' home, and the video-on-demand (VoD) service is provisioned through streaming sessions established among neighboring STBs following a Peer-to-Peer fashion. Up to now the majority of research works have focused on the design and optimization of content replicas mechanisms to minimize server costs. The optimization of replicas mechanisms has been typically performed either considering very crude system performance indicators or analyzing asymptotic behavior. In this work, instead, we propose an analytical model that complements previous works providing fairly accurate predictions of system performance (i.e., blocking probability). Our model turns out to be a highly scalable, flexible, and extensible tool that may be helpful both for designers and developers to efficiently predict the effect of system design choices in large scale STB-VoD system
Minimum cost mirror sites using network coding: Replication vs. coding at the source nodes
Content distribution over networks is often achieved by using mirror sites
that hold copies of files or portions thereof to avoid congestion and delay
issues arising from excessive demands to a single location. Accordingly, there
are distributed storage solutions that divide the file into pieces and place
copies of the pieces (replication) or coded versions of the pieces (coding) at
multiple source nodes. We consider a network which uses network coding for
multicasting the file. There is a set of source nodes that contains either
subsets or coded versions of the pieces of the file. The cost of a given
storage solution is defined as the sum of the storage cost and the cost of the
flows required to support the multicast. Our interest is in finding the storage
capacities and flows at minimum combined cost. We formulate the corresponding
optimization problems by using the theory of information measures. In
particular, we show that when there are two source nodes, there is no loss in
considering subset sources. For three source nodes, we derive a tight upper
bound on the cost gap between the coded and uncoded cases. We also present
algorithms for determining the content of the source nodes.Comment: IEEE Trans. on Information Theory (to appear), 201
Adaptive Replication in Distributed Content Delivery Networks
We address the problem of content replication in large distributed content
delivery networks, composed of a data center assisted by many small servers
with limited capabilities and located at the edge of the network. The objective
is to optimize the placement of contents on the servers to offload as much as
possible the data center. We model the system constituted by the small servers
as a loss network, each loss corresponding to a request to the data center.
Based on large system / storage behavior, we obtain an asymptotic formula for
the optimal replication of contents and propose adaptive schemes related to
those encountered in cache networks but reacting here to loss events, and
faster algorithms generating virtual events at higher rate while keeping the
same target replication. We show through simulations that our adaptive schemes
outperform significantly standard replication strategies both in terms of loss
rates and adaptation speed.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure
Analyzing Peer Selection Policies for BitTorrent Multimedia On-Demand Streaming Systems in Internet
The adaptation of the BitTorrent protocol to multimedia on-demand streaming
systems essentially lies on the modification of its two core algorithms, namely
the piece and the peer selection policies, respectively. Much more attention
has though been given to the piece selection policy. Within this context, this
article proposes three novel peer selection policies for the design of
BitTorrent-like protocols targeted at that type of systems: Select Balanced
Neighbour Policy (SBNP), Select Regular Neighbour Policy (SRNP), and Select
Optimistic Neighbour Policy (SONP). These proposals are validated through a
competitive analysis based on simulations which encompass a variety of
multimedia scenarios, defined in function of important characterization
parameters such as content type, content size, and client interactivity
profile. Service time, number of clients served and efficiency retrieving
coefficient are the performance metrics assessed in the analysis. The final
results mainly show that the novel proposals constitute scalable solutions that
may be considered for real project designs. Lastly, future work is included in
the conclusion of this paper.Comment: 19 PAGE
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