Peer-assisted on-demand streaming of stored media using BitTorrent-like protocols

  • Authors:
  • Niklas Carlsson;Derek L. Eager

  • Affiliations:
  • Department of Computer Science, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada;Department of Computer Science, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada

  • Venue:
  • NETWORKING'07 Proceedings of the 6th international IFIP-TC6 conference on Ad Hoc and sensor networks, wireless networks, next generation internet
  • Year:
  • 2007

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Abstract

With BitTorrent-like protocols a client may download a file from a large and changing set of peers, using connections of heterogeneous and time-varying bandwidths. This flexibility is achieved by breaking the file into many small pieces, each of which may be downloaded from different peers. This paper considers an approach to peer-assisted on-demand delivery of stored media that is based on the relatively simple and flexible BitTorrent-like approach, but which is able to achieve a form of "streaming" delivery, in the sense that playback can begin well before the entire media file is received. Achieving this goal requires: (1) a piece selection strategy that effectively mediates the conflict between the goals of high piece diversity, and the in-order requirements of media file playback, and (2) an on-line rule for deciding when playback can safely commence. We present and evaluate using simulation candidate protocols including both of these components.