Improving multi-view peer-to-peer live streaming systems with the divide-and-conquer strategy

Abstract

Multi-view peer-to-peer (P2P) live streaming systems have recently emerged, where a user is allowed to simultaneously watch one or multiple channels. Previous work on building multi-view P2P streaming systems requires network coding in data block scheduling within each channel, since it solves the fundamental inter-channel bandwidth competition problem at the individual peer level. Therefore, it limits the migration from existing single-view systems to multi-view systems. In this paper, we propose a new protocol, called divide-and-conquer (DAC), which provides a flexible way of building multi-view P2P streaming systems based on existing single-view systems. Specifically, the DAC protocol solves the inter-channel bandwidth competition problem at the channel level based on a divide-and-conquer strategy. Our extensive packet level simulations show that our DAC protocol achieves the three design goals: flexibility, efficiency and scalability.