Enhancing P2P overlay network architecture for live multimedia streaming

The number of live multimedia streaming applications is increasing, explaining the use of many overlay network topologies. Application-layer multicast (ALM) that it is a feasible alternative to multimedia stream has attracted considerable attention. However, a serious problem of ALM is that the multicast tree may be fragile, and peer failure causes tree partitions. This work presents a novel Hierarchical Ring Tree (HRT) architecture for Peer-to-Peer (P2P) live multimedia streaming. The proposed architecture combines ring-based and tree-based structures in a robust, scalable, reliable and resilient structure that can be used practically as an ALM topology. When peers enter or leave the system, the topology can be recovered rapidly such that live multimedia stream can be delivered smoothly with a low latency. The proposed HRT topology is maintained efficiently without splitting or merging trees. The performance of the proposed architecture and algorithms is evaluated experimentally. Experimental results indicate that the proposed topology can be used in a high-churn P2P network with a small delay. Simulation and experiment results reveal that the proposed architecture has a lower overhead than the ZIGZAG approach when handling peers’ joining or leaving, exhibits faster recovery, better quality-of-service during streaming, and a more robust topology, even with an extremely high number of peers joining/leaving.     

An efficient scheduling algorithm for scalable video streaming over P2P networks

During recent years, the Internet has witnessed rapid advancement in peer-to-peer (P2P) media streaming. In these applications, an important issue has been the block scheduling problem, which deals with how each node requests the media data blocks from its neighbors. In most streaming systems, peers are likely to have heterogeneous upload/download bandwidths, leading to the fact that different peers probably perceive different streaming quality. Layered (or scalable) streaming in P2P networks has recently been proposed to address the heterogeneity of the network environment. In this paper, we propose a novel block scheduling scheme that is aimed to address the P2P layered video streaming. We define a soft priority function for each block to be requested by a node in accordance with the block’s significance for video playback. The priority function is unique in that it strikes good balance between different factors, which makes the priority of a block well represent the relative importance of the block over a wide variation of block size between different layers. The block scheduling problem is then transformed to an optimization problem that maximizes the priority sum of the delivered video blocks. We develop both centralized and distributed scheduling algorithms for the problem. Simulation of two popular scalability types has been conducted to evaluate the performance of the algorithms. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm is effective in terms of bandwidth utilization and video quality.     

Adaptive receiver-driven approach in P2P live streaming networks

Efficient delivery under changing network conditions is a major challenge in the design of live streaming systems. This study analyzes the key considerations and factors influencing live stream quality during system operations, and attempts to improve current P2P (peer-to-peer) live streaming systems by allowing users to enjoy high quality of service under the limitations of network resources. The proposed R-D (rate-distortion) optimized dynamic nodes join algorithm is based on multipath streaming concept and receiver-driven approach. This distributed algorithm enables the system to evaluate the current network status in order to optimize the end-to-end distortion of P2P networks. Experimental results of this study demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

基于H.264可伸缩视频流的自适应媒体播放算法

为了应对H.264可伸缩视频编码（SVC）应用中网络特性的波动,提出了一种预测播放中断与缓冲区溢出风险进行及早调节的自适应媒体播放(AMP)算法。该算法估算网络流量与视频图像组（GOP）结构中各帧长度用于风险预测,通过K步调节过程实现良好的调节平滑性与速度,并利用SVC的可伸缩性尽量减少溢出带来的质量损失。仿真结果表明,该算法在抑制播放中断、处理缓冲区溢出与抖动性能等方面,优于现行的平滑AMP与常规AMP算法。     

基于P2P覆盖树网络的流媒体传输技术优化研究

PeerCast是一个基于P2P网络的流媒体传输系统,各节点被组织成树状来进行数据的分发.但没有一个有效的机制来维护树的平衡和保证所选取的父节点是最佳的节点.在此基础上,对该系统进行优化,在媒体数据包上加一个字节用来标识当前节点与根节点的距离,并对节点间响应消息进行优化.实验结果表明,这些优化措施能够有效的维护树的平衡和降底数据传输时延.     

Hybrid fluid modeling approach for performance analysis of P2P live video streaming systems

In this paper a hybrid modeling approach with different modeling formalisms and solution methods is employed in order to analyze the performance of peer to peer live video streaming systems. We conjointly use queuing networks and Fluid Stochastic Petri Nets, developing several performance models to analyze the behavior of rather complex systems. The models account for: network topology, peer churn, scalability, peer average group size, peer upload bandwidth heterogeneity and video buffering, while introducing several features unconsidered in previous performance models, such as: admission control for lower contributing peers, control traffic overhead and internet traffic packet loss. Our analytical and simulation results disclose the optimum number of peers in a neighborhood, the minimum required server upload bandwidth, the optimal buffer size and the influence of control traffic overhead. The analysis reveals the existence of a performance switch-point (i.e. threshold) up to which system scaling is beneficial, whereas performance steeply decreases thereafter. Several degrees of degraded service are introduced to explore performance with arbitrary percentage of lost video frames and provide support for protocols that use scalable video coding techniques. We also find that implementation of admission control does not improve performance and may discourage new peers if waiting times for joining the system increase.     

A performance evaluation of scalable live video streaming with nano data centers

To improve the efficiency and the quality of a service, a network operator may consider deploying a peer-to-peer architecture among controlled peers, also called here nano data centers, which contrast with the churn and resource heterogeneity of peers in uncontrolled environments. In this paper, we consider a prevalent peer-to-peer application: live video streaming. We demonstrate how nano data centers can take advantage of the self-scaling property of a peer-to-peer architecture, while significantly improving the quality of a live video streaming service, allowing smaller delays and fast channel switching. We introduce the branching architecture for nano datacenters (BAND), where a user can “pull” content from a channel of interest, or content could be “pushed” to it for relaying to other interested users. We prove that there exists an optimal trade-off point between minimizing the number of push, or the number of relaying nodes, and maintaining a robust topology as the number of channels and users get large, which allows scalability. We analyze the performance of content dissemination as users switch between channels, creating migration of nodes in the tree, while flow control insures continuity of data transmission. We prove that this p2p architecture guarantees a throughput independently of the size of the group. Analysis and evaluation of the model demonstrate that pushing content to a small number of relay nodes can have significant performance gains in throughput, start-up time, playback lags and channel switching delays.     

一种分层分簇的P2P流媒体覆盖网络模型

提出一种新型的分层分簇结构的P2P覆盖网络模型HCPON。该模型根据能力对节点分层处理,分簇聚合,分别应用不同方案优化覆盖网络结构,兼顾了节点的能力差异性和位置特性。仿真实验表明,该模型具有很好的可扩展性和鲁棒性,能够满足大规模流媒体服务需求。     

Adaptive content-and-deadline aware chunk scheduling in mesh-based P2P video streaming

In mesh-based Peer-to-Peer (P2P) live video streaming systems packet scheduling is an important factor in overall video playback quality. In mesh based P2P video streaming systems, each video sequence is divided into chunks, which are then distributed by multiple suppliers to the receivers. The suppliers need to be coordinated by the receiver through specifying a transmission schedule for each of them. Many previous studies on scheduling of P2P streaming tend to mainly focus on networking issues which strongly depend on a particular P2P architecture such as tree or mesh. These algorithms suffer from some design issues: 1) they are too complex to deploy, 2) they do not take video characteristics into account and 3) they do not have sender-side transmission policy. To address all three of these problems, we propose a new chunk scheduling scheme which consists of two parts: i) receiver-side scheduler and ii) sender-side transmission order scheme. The proposed receiver-side scheduler considers the contribution level of each video frame as well as the frame’s urgency in order to define a priority for each video frame. It attempts to request frames with highest priority from peers which can deliver them in a shorter time. We also design a new chunk transmission order scheme that decides which requested chunk will be sent out first based on its importance to the requesting neighbor. Our simulation results show that the proposed scheduling scheme improves the overall quality of the perceived video in mesh-based P2P video streaming architectures substantially.     

Inter-Object Layer Clustering for scalable video streaming

In this work, we develop an efficient storage technique to support real-time streaming of layer encoded video in a single hard disk. The size of a single hard disk drive will soon be able to hold multi-tera bytes and is going to handle relatively larger number of files. We expect that disk layout in a single disk will be rather critical issue in determining the efficiency of the storage system. We propose a novel storage technique, Inter-Object Layer Clustering for layer encoded video objects. In Inter-Object Layer Clustering, storage is partitioned into two regions: lower layer partition and upper layer partition. Lower and upper layer partition harbor the lower layer and upper layer data blocks across all video objects and cluster them together. We develop an elaborate performance model for this placement scheme. We examine the performance of the proposed technique using analytical formulation as well as a physical experiment. We found that clustering the layers across all objects brings 100% increase in the number of concurrent sessions compared to the case where file is stored in temporal order when the clients’ access bandwidth is narrow. Inter-Object Layer Clustering shows 15% performance improvement compared to the clustering of layers within the objects.     

Optimized scalable cache management for video streaming system

An important research issue in video streaming is how to efficiently utilize the network resources to provide clients instant access to multiple video objects. Caching strategy and transmission scheme are the two essential points inside the video streaming framework. Recent research efforts on them are not sufficient due to their inflexible support for scalable encoded video streams and heterogeneous requests from clients. In this paper, we propose an optimized caching strategy (OCS) and a scalable transmission scheme (STS) for scalable coded video streaming. By exploring the characteristics of video streaming workload and system design objectives, OCS and STS work efficiently to minimize both network bandwidth cost and user access latency. Firstly, we analyze the caching problem for the proxy-assisted video streaming system and derive a maneuverable caching scenario. Secondly, we develop an efficient transmission scheme for scalable coded videos. Thirdly, we formulate a multi-objective optimization model with closed-form expressions to obtain the optimized caching strategy. Finally, with designed algorithms, an excellent compromise between two competing objectives (minimizing the bandwidth cost and the access latency) is achieved. We start our evaluation by studying the optimized caching strategy for a single video object. Then we apply the strategy to multiple video objects and illustrate the tradeoff between the optimization objectives. Our evaluation results show that compared with other caching strategies, the proposed optimized scalable caching strategy can achieve a significant reduction in bandwidth cost with even a small proxy cache size. Meanwhile, the best performance (in terms of bandwidth cost) is obtained together with the proposed scalable batch-patching transmission scheme.

A P2P streaming architecture supporting scalable media

Peer-to-peer (P2P) streaming solutions are changing the way real-time multimedia transmission is distributed over the Internet. The advances in video coding, like Scalable Video Coding, also turns possible high-quality/definition video distribution and consumption. The recent push in using the standard HTTP protocol for streaming videos in the World Wide Web, is also making converged entertainment services come closer to global deployment across TV, Tablet and mobile devices. The combination of Scalable Video, P2P networks and Web technologies for transmitting high-quality live and time-shifted media contents, is a potential area of innovation and a very actual research topic. This paper describes the architecture of a quality-centric P2P distribution network supporting adaptive and scalable streamable media, that decouples the transport mechanisms from the media content type and structure (video, audio, timed-data, timed-text), irrespective of their encoding schemes. The set of P2P streaming protocols designed for the network enables streaming of live and on-demand media, with very low signaling cost. Prototypes of the P2P network components were implemented and integrated in the streaming platform of EU FP7 SARACEN Project. A suite of tests for evaluation of the performance of the solution demonstrates that it keeps a fairly stable quality level with reduced amplitude and frequency of variations, raising the overall quality perceived by the end-user.     

Token-based incentive mechanism for peer-to-peer video streaming networks

The Journal of Supercomputing - We consider the problem of live video streaming in peer-to-peer networks consisting of selfish peers aiming at maximizing peers’ individual utilities. We use...     

An incentive scheduling mechanism for peer-to-peer video streaming

P2P video streaming networks are found as a scalable solution and an alternative for traditional client–server based video streaming over the Internet. One of the significant issues affecting the success of any P2P streaming network is cooperation between peers. Practical observations have proved the prevalence of free riders in P2P networks that degrade their performance. To solve this problem, using incentive mechanisms, which encourage peers to contribute more in the network, is necessary. In this paper, we designed and proposed a distributed and scalable incentive mechanism for mesh based P2P video streaming networks. In the proposed approach the contribution of the peers is measured and maintained in a distributed fashion. Furthermore, we proposed an incentive sending side scheduler in which peers are served based on their contribution in the network. Our simulation evaluations show the efficiency of the proposed approach in improving the overall perceived video quality by the non-free rider nodes and consequently in the whole network.     

Construction and maintenance of P2P overlays for live streaming

Multimedia Tools and Applications - P2P live streaming requires low latency and low media discontinuity to provide users good quality of experience. When peers are connected to a large number of...     

一种基于激励机制的P2P流媒体数据调度模型

针对P2P流媒体中现有算法在数据调度时不够公平的问题,提出了一种新的具有激励作用的算法模型.该算法模型可以根据节点的丢包率、贡献效率动态调节节点带宽分配以达到接收节点利益理性最大化和系统整体公平,提高了系统传输效率.仿真实验表明,该算法模型促进了节点的参与传输调度,达到了维持系统公平的目的.     

P2P在线视频研究综述*

P2P技术凭借其开放性、可扩展性和高性价比等优点成为了目前解决在线视频问题的有效手段之一。 虽然P2P技术在文件共享和IP语音等方面的应用已经基本趋于成熟,但其在在线视频领域的应用尚处于起步 阶段,还面临着许多需要解决的问题。对P2P在线视频进行了全面而深入的分析,首先介绍了网络广播分类及 体系结构设计,整理和总结了已有的关于P2P在线视频系统的测量研究结果,最后对于P2P在线视频信任和污 染攻击等安全问题进行了概述。     

Seamless switching of scalable video bitstreams for efficient streaming

Efficient adaptation to channel bandwidth is broadly required for effective streaming video over the Internet. To address this requirement, a novel seamless switching scheme among scalable video bitstreams is proposed in this paper. It can significantly improve the performance of video streaming over a broad range of bit rates by fully taking advantage of both the high coding efficiency of nonscalable bitstreams and the flexibility of scalable bitstreams, where small channel bandwidth fluctuations are accommodated by the scalability of a single scalable bitstream, whereas large channel bandwidth fluctuations are tolerated by flexible switching between different scalable bitstreams. Two main techniques for switching between video bitstreams are proposed. Firstly, a novel coding scheme is proposed to enable drift-free switching at any frame from the current scalable bitstream to one operated at lower rates without sending any overhead bits. Secondly, a switching-frame coding scheme is proposed to greatly reduce the number of extra bits needed for switching from the current scalable bitstream to one operated at higher rates. Compared with existing approaches, such as switching between nonscalable bitstreams and streaming with a single scalable bitstream, our experimental results clearly show that the proposed scheme brings higher efficiency and more flexibility in video streaming.     

Dynamic overlay multicast for live multimedia streaming in urban VANETs

Infotainment service has been a foreseeing trend in VANETs (Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks), and multimedia streaming has a high potential in VANET infotainment service. This paper considers the scenario of live multimedia streaming multicast to vehicles of the same group using a dynamic application layer overlay. Due to the willingness for cooperation of non-group nodes, application layer overlay multicast is more feasible than other kinds of multicast such as network-coding-based multicast and network-layer multicast. To adapt to high mobility and full of obstacles in urban VANETs, we propose an effective dynamic overlay multicast scheme for multimedia streaming, called OMV (Overlay Multicast in VANETs). The proposed OMV enhances an overlay’s stability with two strategies: (1) QoS-satisfied dynamic overlay and (2) mesh-structure overlay. The QoS-satisfied strategy to adjust the overlay selects potential new parents based on their streams’ packet loss rates and end-to-end delays. The mesh-structure strategy allows a child to have multiple parents. We evaluate the proposed OMV in urban VANETs with obstacles using two real video clips to demonstrate the feasibility of the OMV for real videos. Evaluation results show that comparing the proposed OMV to Qadri et al.’s work, which is a static mesh overlay and is the best method available in VANETs, the packet loss rate is reduced by 27.1% and the end-to-end delay is decreased by 11.7%, with a small control overhead of 2.1%, on average. Comparing the proposed OMV for tree overlays to ALMA, which is for dynamic tree multicast overlays and is also the best method available in MANETs, the packet loss rate is reduced by 7.1% and the end-to-end delay is decreased by 13.1%. In addition, to address the problem of obstacle-prone urban VANETs, we also derive feasible stream rates and overlay sizes for city maps with different road section sizes. To the best of our knowledge, how to organize and dynamically adjust an application layer multicast overlay for live multimedia streaming have not been studied in existing VANET literatures. In summary, to deal with highly dynamic topologies in urban VANETs, we propose a QoS-satisfied strategy for group nodes to switch to new parents that can offer better QoS. The proposed OMV is feasible for live multimedia streaming applications, such as emergency live video transmission and live video tour guides for passengers in different vehicles that belong to the same multicast group.     

An overlay multicast protocol for live streaming and delay-guaranteed interactive media

In many collaborative multimedia applications, there is often a requirement for simultaneously supporting live streaming and shareable interaction. A major challenge in designing such an application by overlay multicast is how to simultaneously provide scalable live streaming and delay-guaranteed interactive media. Live streaming by overlay multicast incurs additional application-layer latency, which conflicts with the delay-sensitive property of interactive media. To handle this dilemma, in this paper, we propose a layered degree-constrained overlay multicast protocol, which organizes the overlay multicast tree as a layered degree-constrained core tree and an extended tree. The core tree maintains available resources in its top layers for subsequent two-way interaction, whereas the extended tree expands the core tree for one-way live streaming. Our simulation and experimental results show that the proposed overlay multicast protocol can simultaneously provide delay-guaranteed interactive media as well as scalable live streaming.