415 research outputs found
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
Architecture for Cooperative Prefetching in P2P Video-on- Demand System
Most P2P VoD schemes focused on service architectures and overlays
optimization without considering segments rarity and the performance of
prefetching strategies. As a result, they cannot better support VCRoriented
service in heterogeneous environment having clients using free VCR controls.
Despite the remarkable popularity in VoD systems, there exist no prior work
that studies the performance gap between different prefetching strategies. In
this paper, we analyze and understand the performance of different prefetching
strategies. Our analytical characterization brings us not only a better
understanding of several fundamental tradeoffs in prefetching strategies, but
also important insights on the design of P2P VoD system. On the basis of this
analysis, we finally proposed a cooperative prefetching strategy called
"cooching". In this strategy, the requested segments in VCR interactivities are
prefetched into session beforehand using the information collected through
gossips. We evaluate our strategy through extensive simulations. The results
indicate that the proposed strategy outperforms the existing prefetching
mechanisms.Comment: 13 Pages, IJCN
AngelCast: cloud-based peer-assisted live streaming using optimized multi-tree construction
Increasingly, commercial content providers (CPs) offer streaming solutions using peer-to-peer (P2P) architectures, which promises significant scalabil- ity by leveraging clients’ upstream capacity. A major limitation of P2P live streaming is that playout rates are constrained by clients’ upstream capac- ities – typically much lower than downstream capacities – which limit the quality of the delivered stream. To leverage P2P architectures without sacri- ficing quality, CPs must commit additional resources to complement clients’ resources. In this work, we propose a cloud-based service AngelCast that enables CPs to complement P2P streaming. By subscribing to AngelCast, a CP is able to deploy extra resources (angel), on-demand from the cloud, to maintain a desirable stream quality. Angels do not download the whole stream, nor are they in possession of it. Rather, angels only relay the minimal fraction of the stream necessary to achieve the desired quality. We provide a lower bound on the minimum angel capacity needed to maintain a desired client bit-rate, and develop a fluid model construction to achieve it. Realizing the limitations of the fluid model construction, we design a practical multi- tree construction that captures the spirit of the optimal construction, and avoids its limitations. We present a prototype implementation of AngelCast, along with experimental results confirming the feasibility of our service.Supported in part by NSF awards #0720604, #0735974, #0820138, #0952145, #1012798 #1012798 #1430145 #1414119. (0720604 - NSF; 0735974 - NSF; 0820138 - NSF; 0952145 - NSF; 1012798 - NSF; 1430145 - NSF; 1414119 - NSF
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
Decentralized Adaptive Helper Selection in Multi-channel P2P Streaming Systems
In Peer-to-Peer (P2P) multichannel live streaming, helper peers with surplus
bandwidth resources act as micro-servers to compensate the server deficiencies
in balancing the resources between different channel overlays. With deployment
of helper level between server and peers, optimizing the user/helper topology
becomes a challenging task since applying well-known reciprocity-based choking
algorithms is impossible due to the one-directional nature of video streaming
from helpers to users. Because of selfish behavior of peers and lack of central
authority among them, selection of helpers requires coordination. In this
paper, we design a distributed online helper selection mechanism which is
adaptable to supply and demand pattern of various video channels. Our solution
for strategic peers' exploitation from the shared resources of helpers is to
guarantee the convergence to correlated equilibria (CE) among the helper
selection strategies. Online convergence to the set of CE is achieved through
the regret-tracking algorithm which tracks the equilibrium in the presence of
stochastic dynamics of helpers' bandwidth. The resulting CE can help us select
proper cooperation policies. Simulation results demonstrate that our algorithm
achieves good convergence, load distribution on helpers and sustainable
streaming rates for peers
ISP-friendly Peer-assisted On-demand Streaming of Long Duration Content in BBC iPlayer
In search of scalable solutions, CDNs are exploring P2P support. However, the
benefits of peer assistance can be limited by various obstacle factors such as
ISP friendliness - requiring peers to be within the same ISP, bitrate
stratification - the need to match peers with others needing similar bitrate,
and partial participation - some peers choosing not to redistribute content.
This work relates potential gains from peer assistance to the average number
of users in a swarm, its capacity, and empirically studies the effects of these
obstacle factors at scale, using a month-long trace of over 2 million users in
London accessing BBC shows online. Results indicate that even when P2P swarms
are localised within ISPs, up to 88% of traffic can be saved. Surprisingly,
bitrate stratification results in 2 large sub-swarms and does not significantly
affect savings. However, partial participation, and the need for a minimum
swarm size do affect gains. We investigate improvements to gain from increasing
content availability through two well-studied techniques: content bundling -
combining multiple items to increase availability, and historical caching of
previously watched items. Bundling proves ineffective as increased server
traffic from larger bundles outweighs benefits of availability, but simple
caching can considerably boost traffic gains from peer assistance.Comment: In Proceedings of IEEE INFOCOM 201
Performance analysis of non-stationary peer-assisted VoD systems
Abstract—We analyze a peer-assisted Video-on-Demand system in which users contribute their upload bandwidth to the redistribution of a video that they are downloading or that they have cached locally. Our target is to characterize the additional bandwidth that servers must supply to immediately satisfy all requests to watch a given video. We develop an approximate fluid model to compute the required server bandwidth in the sequential delivery case. Our approach is able to capture several stochastic effects related to peer churn, upload bandwidth heterogeneity, non-stationary traffic conditions, which have not been documented or analyzed before. We provide an analytical methodology to design efficient peer-assisted VoD systems and optimal resource allocation strategies. I
Stochastic Analysis of Self-Sustainability in Peer-Assisted VoDSystems
Abstract—We consider a peer-assisted Video-on-demand system, in which video distribution is supported both by peers caching the whole video and by peers concurrently downloading it. We propose a stochastic fluid framework that allows to characterize the additional bandwidth requested from the servers to satisfy all users watching a given video. We obtain analytical upper bounds to the server bandwidth needed in the case in which users download the video content sequentially. We also present a methodology to obtain exact solutions for special cases of peer upload bandwidth distribution. Our bounds permit to tightly characterize the performance of peer-assisted VoD systems as the number of users increases, for both sequential and nonsequential delivery schemes. In particular, we rigorously prove that the simple sequential scheme is asymptotically optimal both in the bandwidth surplus and in the bandwidth deficit mode, and that peer-assisted systems become totally self-sustaining in the surplus mode as the number of users grows large. I
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