Using Peer to Peer and Social Networking to support new models for IP based streaming services

Abstract

In this paper, the use of a platform for distribution of streaming multimedia over IP through and the use of Peer to Peer technologies in combination with Social Networking are presented. A particular use case scenario is given, which can offer alternative ways for Service Providers to support IP based streaming services to end users, featuring the involvement of the latter in the media distribution architecture in return for reduced pricing. To support the above and also meet the requirements for Quality of Service, state of the art encoding techniques are be utilized, which are based on scalable and multiple description coding. The platform is under implementation in the context of the FP7 project SARACEN.

Full text

Using Peer to Peer and Social Networking to support
new models for IP based streaming services
Ch. Patrikakis, N. Papaoulakis, P. Sipsas, I. Schmidt
National Technical University of Athens, {bpatr,npapaoul}@telecom.ntua.gr,
Sipsas@hotmail.com, irene.schmidt@atosresearch.eu
Abstract. In this paper, the use of a platform for distribution of streaming
multimedia over IP through and the use of Peer to Peer technologies in
combination with Social Networking are presented. A particular use case
scenario is given, which can offer alternative ways for Service Providers to
support IP based streaming services to end users, featuring the involvement of
the latter in the media distribution architecture in return for reduced pricing. To
support the above and also meet the requirements for Quality of Service, state
of the art encoding techniques are be utilized, which are based on scalable and
multiple description coding. The platform is under implementation in the
context of the FP7 project SARACEN.
Keywords: Peer to Peer, Multimedia distribution, IP networking
1 Introduction
Online video access popularity has been enjoying a tremendous increase in
popularity in the past years. According to “Cisco Visual Networking Index: Forecast
and Methodology, 2009–2014”, the global online video community will surpass 1
billion users by the end of 2010, while it would take 72 million years to watch the
amount of video that will cross global IP networks during calendar year 2014[1]. The
expected increase in bandwidth demand for video distribution over the internet
(according to the same report, Global Internet video traffic will surpass global peer-
to-peer (P2P) traffic by the end of 2010) has been giving thrust to research for
efficient ways to broadcast video over IP using heterogeneous networks and different
types of devices. On the other hand, more and more internet broadcasters adopt state
of the art and alternatives low cost technologies for media streaming in order to
address this rapidly increasing demand for bandwidth.
As regards the models for distribution, two approaches are deployed so far. The
first is IPTV [2] which provides high quality in media but is limited to the users of
specific ISP networks and the second is WebTV [3]
where the content is available

from any local network connected to the Internet but it lacks of quality and stability in
media streaming.
Both technologies are considered to be the future of the encoding in IP based
streaming media. They allow the introduction of new interactive services which were
not possible so far. Considering the strengths and weaknesses of both technologies, it
is believed that they are more complementary than competitive [4].
2 Combining the advantages of IPTV and WebTV
Both WebTV and IPTV have particular advantages as regards the model which
they are called to serve. WebTV offers cost free access to the videos, harnessing the
capabilities of public internet (however without any quality guarantee), while IPTV
can take advantage of the dedicated infrastructure of consumers to convey the videos
ensuring high quality and support for bitrates suitable for HD video (however, with
the extra cost introduced through the subscription to a service provider). The
combination of the advantages of the two approaches could lead to a reduced cost
solution capable of supporting quality of service even over the public internet.
In the following sections of this paper, we are going to describe such a solution
based on a platform for media streaming able to provide high quality in the media
distribution following the IPTV model, while the content is accessible from any
network, something that WebTV offers to its users. To achieve this, the platform uses
the active involvement of users in the media distribution chain through their
organization in a peer to peer media distribution network and sharing of their own
infrastructure (devices and access to the network) in order to enjoy the services with
low cost. The idea is to involve the users in a model borrowed by nature: Reciprocal
Altruism, which has been successfully used in P2P file sharing over the widely
adopted BitTorrent [5] through the Tit for Tat model deployed.
The success of P2P file sharing has led to adoption of the P2P model for
multimedia streaming as well. Several platforms supporting P2P streaming already
exist (PPLive, PPStream, Coolstreaming, QQLive, SopCast, Feidian, TV Ants) [6]
while research is also underway in order to determine the technologies that could
render P2P streaming more robust and Quality aware (P2PNext [7], SARACEN
[8]).Peer to peer multimedia networks demand few resources in order to be
conformed compared to a traditional multimedia network with central servers. Since
every node can both download and upload data there is no need to have many central
servers or distributed farms of servers in order to support the multimedia distribution.
Nodes receive the multimedia content from their neighboring ones and retransmit it to
other peer nodes. In this way, every node receives the best possible quality of the
multimedia content without overloading the central server. The limited number of
central servers means lower budget for the initial cost of the network set up but also
lower operational costs. This allows companies which cannot afford great budgets to
build their own media streaming networks.
The model of distribution proposed in this paper is based on the use of peer to
peer networks for the distribution of the media streams. Every user acts as a node of
the distribution network and is able to both download and upload media content from
and to other nodes. To achieve more stability in distribution and to enhance it, social

networking features are deployed, in order to support the selection of the peers not
only in terms of proximity, but also taking into account the context, which in our case
are the viewing preferences and the content being accessed each time. Users of the
platform can join any social group according to their viewing or content preferences.
Starting from this, nodes sharing specific media content are further categorized
according to its proximity, since data exchange between neighboring nodes cases less
traffic to the rest of the network. In this way, media streaming is enhanced and
network traffic is limited so as that every node receives the multimedia content in the
best possible quality depending on its internet bandwidth and the available resources
at that moment.
In order to support the robust transmission of media an uninterrupted experience
of users, the deployment of scalable coding techniques can be used to address
problems of nodes leaving the P2P network, and network congestion. Both state of the
art techniques, Scalable Video coding [9] and Multiple Description Coding [10] can
be deployed.
3 Design and implementation of the platform
Following, we are going to describe a possible implementation of the platform for
offering better Quality of Experience in a personalised media streaming through the
integration of scalable media coding techniques, advanced media transport protocols,
and P2P technologies with respect to the user privacy. The main architecture is
depicted in the following figure. The platform presented here is designed and
implemented in the context of the IST FP7 project SARACEN: Socially Aware,
collaboRative, scAlable Coding mEdia distributioN.
GroupA
GroupB
Broadcaster
Content
User
generated
content
Content
Aggregation
Content
Coding
Content
Streaming
Enduser
(Peer‐contributor)
Endusers
(Peers‐consumers)
Complementary
MDCstreams
Data– metadata
streams
MDCscenario
Userprofile
repository
Figure 1: Scalable media distribution in SARACEN
The above architecture on media distribution is a common ground among projects
dealing with P2P based streaming media distribution. In most of cases, standard
encoding for the media streams is used. However, if the same (i.e. H264/AVC)

encoded streams are being sent, the redundancy will be high and options for video
rate adaptation to match instantaneous throughput are very limited, such as skipping
some B frames which create noticeable motion jitter. Alternatively, it is possible to
generate multiple descriptions from H264/AVC video streams and send a different
description from each path to reduce overall transmission redundancy. But even in
this case, options for rate adaptation of each stream will still be limited.
To overcome the above limitations, streaming of scalable media can be adopted.
Transmission of SVC bit streams over each path allows efficient adaptation of the
video rate to available network throughput, using congestion control protocols such as
DCCP or UDP or TCP-variants like the TFRC. Clearly, sending Multiple
Descriptions generated from an SVC stream such that each description itself is
scalable should yield the best results in terms of overall redundancy and efficient
adaptability of streams to avoid congestion related failures in the network. As it is
depicted in the previous figure, the streamed media is broken down into several bit
streams that are streamed to different nodes belonging to end users, which act as
reflectors participating in a peer to peer distribution scheme. The streamed video
content can reach each user from multiple paths in order to increase the robustness of
the system against single point of failures in the network and bursts of packet losses.
There are several options on the type of compressed video bit stream that can be sent
along each path.
Finally, trying to contribute the most in satisfying the need for Quality of
Experience, it also addresses issues of deploying P2P networking schemes over
different domains, and media streaming over heterogeneous networks. In this,
seamless adaptation and switching between different network technologies, as well as
addressing of firewall and NAT issues are issues that will be addressed in the context
of the project.
4 Using a hybrid model for offering access to IP multimedia
Following the description of the platform given in the previous section, we will
proceed with the presentation of the way this platform can be deployed by a service
provider in order to offer access to IP multimedia using a hybrid model that combines
the advantages of both WebTV and IPTV, as presented earlier.
For the needs of the presentation of the use case, let us consider a TV station or ISP
(or a joint consortium) that decides to make available the TV media program of the
station or broadcast live events in real time over the internet. Meeting the needs for
quality assurance and covering a large audience requires very high budgets, and the
corresponding agreements and infrastructures that in cases of small companies render
the venture impossible. For thi, reason, the SARACEN P2P platform which could
provide a corresponding robust mechanism for media distribution built over the
infrastructure of the participant consumers is deployed. The deployment of the
platform can be achieved through two different methods. The first is by setting up a
private streamer on the broadcaster’s premises with an uplink connection with an
uplink connection capable of supporting some 10s of MBps (as it will be used for the

distribution of the stream to some ingress points of the media distribution chain, while
the P2P will take over for the full distribution to all nodes according to Figure 1. The
streaming software will be available from the SARACEN platform and will provide
the initial stream to the P2P nodes of the platform.
The other solution is with the use of a small number of SARACEN set top boxes
that could receive from the UHF the TV program and feed it to the SARACEN
platform (thus acting again as ingress points to the P2P distribution network). In order
to avoid the copyright issues the SARACEN platform could check if the program that
transmitted has the necessary copyright in order to allow P2P sharing otherwise it
prevents it.
Coming to the end users, apart from the ability to make use of the P2P network for
enjoying enhanced quality and robust transmission, a further advantage is introduced:
In cases where downlink bandwidth is inadequate for supporting the full bitrate
available (i.e. in the case of High Definition content streaming), while alternative
access network technologies are available (i.e. WiFi), neighboring nodes can be
interconnected and jointly access parts of the stream, exchanging these parts, thus
increasing to total download capabilities of each node, surpassing the downlink
capabilities over the fixed network access.
5 Acknowledgments
The work presented here has been performed in the context of and has been support
by the IST FP7 project SARACEN: Socially Aware, collaboRative, scAlable Coding
mEdia distributioN. The authors would like to thank all project partners for their
support.
6 References
[1] Cisco Visual Networking Index: Forecast and Methodology, 2009–2014,
White paper, CISCO, June 2, 2010, available on line at
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/ns341/ns525/ns537/ns705/n
s827/white_paper_c11-481360.pdf
[2] TechRepublic, Introduction to IPTV , available online at
http://whitepapers.techrepublic.com.com/abstract.aspx?docid=315495&prom
o=100511
[3] abouttheweb.com, About WebTV® and MSN® TV, available at
http://www.about-the-web.com/shtml/WebTV.shtml
[4] DMR The Magazine for Management and Technology, To be continued: IP
TV versus Web TV, available athttp://www.detecon-dmr.com/en/article/ip-
tv-versus-web-tv_2007_06_29/page/4
[5] Bram Cohen, “Incentives Build Robustness in BitTorrent”, May 22, 2003,
available online at: http://www.bittorrent.org/bittorrentecon.pdf
[6] All streaming media.com, Peer to Peer TV, available online at: http://all-
streaming-media.com/peer-to-peer-TV/

[7] P2P-Next research project home page, available online at: http://www.p2p-
next.org/
[8] SARACEN research project home page,, available online at:
http://www.saracen-p2p.eu/
[9] Overview of the Scalable Video Coding Extension of the H.264/AVC
Standard Heiko Schwarz, Detlev Marpe, Member, IEEE, and Thomas
Wiegand, Member, IEEE, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CIRCUITS AND
SYSTEMS FOR VIDEO TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 17, NO. 9, SEPTEMBER
2007.
[10] V. K. Goyal, "Multiple Description Coding: Compression Meets the
Network," IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, vol. 18, no. 5, pp. 74–94,
Sept. 2001.