A Simple Model for Analyzing P2P Streaming Protocols

— P2P streaming tries to achieve scalability (like P2P file distribution) and at the same time meet real-time playback requirements. It is a challenging problem still not well understood. In this paper, we describe a simple stochastic model that can be used to compare different data-driven downloading strategies based on two performance metrics: continuity (probability of continuous playback), and startup latency (expected time to start playback). We first study two simple strategies: Rarest First and Greedy. The former is a well-known strategy for P2P file sharing that gives good scalability, whereas the latter an intuitively reasonable strategy to optimize continuity and startup latency from a single peer’s viewpoint. Greedy, while achieving low startup latency, fares poorly in continuity by failing to maximize P2P sharing; whereas Rarest First is the opposite. This highlights the trade-off between startup latency and continuity, and how system scalability improves continuity....

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: ICNP
• Authors: Yipeng Zhou, Dah-Ming Chiu, John C. S. Lui
• Keywords: ICNP 2007, Low Startup Latency, Network Protocols, Playback Requirements, Startup Latency