This application is a 35 U.S.C. §371 national stage application of PCT International Application No. PCT/SE2009/050484, filed on 5 May 2009, the disclosure and content of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. The above-referenced PCT International Application was published in the English language as International Publication No. WO 2010/128905 A1 on 11 Nov. 2010.
The present invention generally relates to systems and methods and, more particularly, to mechanisms and techniques for arranging a distribution tree in a Peer to Peer P2P streaming system.
P2P streaming applications are becoming commonplace on the PC and it foreseen that they will make their way into networked Consumer Electronic CE devices (e.g. MP3 players, media players etc). P2P streaming applications will also be available on mobile phone devices. Examples of P2P streaming applications are Joost (video) and Spotify (music).
P2P streaming applications work in much the same way as other P2P fileshare clients except that instead of downloading files, the users download streams. These streams are then exchanged in real-time with other users. Depending on implementation, no data might be stored locally on any machine connected to the network.
In these applications, an overlay construction mechanism organizes participating peers into multiple trees. Each peer determines a proper number of trees to join based on its access link bandwidth. To minimize the effect of churn and effectively utilize available resources in the system, participating peers are organized into multiple diverse trees. With diverse trees, each peer is placed as an internal node in only one tree and leaf node in other participating trees. When a peer joins the system, it contacts a bootstrapping server to identify a parent node in the desired number of trees. To keep the population of internal nodes balanced among different trees, a new node is added as an internal node to the tree that has the minimum number of internal nodes. An example of multiple diverse trees can be seen below:
P2P streaming applications are built on either tree-based or meshed based architectures. They differ in the way the peers relate to one another. Specifically in tree based systems the relationship between parent peers and child peers are static and a rigid tree structure is maintained during the system run time. In mesh-based there is no well defined relationship between parent and child peers, participating peers form a randomly connected overlay, or a mesh. In mesh-based systems each peer tries to maintain a certain number of parents (i.e., incoming degree) and also serves a specific number of child peers (i.e., outgoing degree). Upon arrival, a peer contacts a bootstrapping server to receive a set of peers that can potentially serve as parents. The bootstrapping server maintains the outgoing degree of all participating peers. Individual peers periodically report their newly available packets to their child peers and request specific packets from individual parent peers. A parent peer periodically receives an ordered list of requested packets from each child peer, and delivers the packets in the requested order. The requested packets from individual parents are determined by a packet scheduling algorithm at each child peer.
With time, when the business models have been worked out, P2P streaming applications will offer both audio and video. PCs (e.g. laptops) and some Consumer Electronic CE devices can today be connected to the cellular network e.g. via HSPA USB dongles. The behavior of end users has been shown not to change as they switch one access technology to another; hence traffic trends persist to a large extent as users switch from fixed to wireless accesses. It is then very logical to conclude that PCs, CEs and mobile devices will use the cellular network (3G/4G) to run P2P streaming applications in the near future.
An object of the invention is to overcome above identified limitations of the prior art. The invention focuses on the construction of a distribution tree of a P2P streaming systems so that negative impact on radio and core network will be reduced.
The basic concept of the invention is introduction of an operator controlled peer to act as parent peer for all operator internal clients.
The solution to the problems more in detail is a method for arranging a distribution tree in a Peer to Peer P2P streaming system. The system comprises a bootstrapping server that creates an external tree upon reception of register messages from participating operator external clients. The method further comprises the following steps:
According to one exemplary embodiment, a method and arrangement for arranging a distribution tree with a static tree structure is disclosed. Register messages from participating operator internal clients are captured by the operator controlled node, which messages are intended for the bootstrapping server. Replies that imitate the bootstrapping server are sent to the internal clients, which replies decide the operator controlled node as parent node for the internal clients. The tree is hereby arranged in a way that operator internal clients are concealed behind the operator controlled node so that dictated tree formation rules do not apply for the internal clients and their radio uplink capacity is hence spared.
According to another exemplary embodiment, an operator controlled node according to the invention is disclosed. The node is configurable to work in two modes: peer and parent mode. In the peer mode the node is able to join an external network where it appears as regular peer. For internal peers inside an operator's network, the node works in the parent mode.
According to yet another exemplary embodiment, streaming of content in a distribution tree arranged according to the invention has been disclosed.
An object of the invention is to reduce negative traffic impact on the radio access network and the core network. This object and others are achieved by methods, arrangements, nodes, systems and articles of manufacture.
Advantages of the invention are the reduced negative traffic impact on the radio access network and the core network (especially where the operator pays for transit traffic). Besides, the traffic over the radio access as well as the System Architecture Evolution SAE core network will be reduced as a result of eliminating the P2P uplink usage of internal peers. This is especially important as the radio access is a very scare resource. Also depending on the business model the operator benefits by the reducing of the amount of bits transported over the SAE core network. This is especially relevant in countries where the operator has a legal requirement to rent (rather than own) the SAE core transport from third party providers.
The invention will now be described more in detail with the aid of preferred embodiments in connection with the enclosed drawings.
a is a schematic illustration according to prior art of a communication system comprising a plurality of clients connected to a core network via a mobile access network, and clients connected to an internet network. A packet data network gateway is the tunnel ingress/egress point for all internet traffic.
b discloses a tree structure according to prior art.
a is a schematic illustration of a communication system comprising a plurality of clients connected to a core network via a mobile access network and clients connected to an internet network. A packet data network gateway is the tunnel ingress/egress point for all internet traffic and an operator controlled node is arranged as part of the packet data network gateway.
b discloses a tree structure according to the invention.
a discloses an exemplary embodiment of the invention. The figure shows a peer to peer P2P network that includes plural peers/clients 1-6 (laptops in this example). The laptops 2,3,4 are connected via access networks (not shown in the figure) to an internet network, and laptops 1,5,6 are connected via a mobile access network to a Core Network. The figure discloses a very simplified example and the number of clients are in the reality much higher. The clients may be, for example, a mobile phone, a computer, a set top box, or other devices that are capable of exchanging information with the internet, i.e. even though connected via a mobile access, also the clients 1,5,6 can be either wireline or wireless clients. The access networks connecting the laptops 2,3,4 can be for example a communication network, a phone network, an internet service provider, etc.
The mobile network and the core network together constitutes a 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) mobile network. The architecture of 3GPP mobile networks is built around tunneling. In this network, the clients 1,5,6 each are given an IP address that does not change and is topologically anchored in a signaling gateway 15, regardless of where the client device actually is located in the IP domain. The signaling gateway 15 acts as a tunnel terminating node. The tunnels are shown in
b discloses a distribution tree created according to the invention. The tree comprises nodes/peers 1-7. The streams S1, S6 and S7 that already have been mentioned in
The method according to the first embodiment will now be explained together with
When comparing the tree created according to prior art (
The described concept also applies to pre-SAE architecture in which case the PCN could be hosted by the GGSN.
The above described example covers mesh based or pull-based P2P. There is another type of P2P streaming and that is the ‘tree-based’ or push based P2P. Here the peers do not ask the parent node for a chunk, they only get what the parent gives them. In a mesh based system there are two main types of requests from a peer; bootstrapping request and chunk request, the chunk request will be further clarified together with
The streaming method according to the invention comprises the following steps:
A system that can be used to put the invention into practice is schematically shown in the
The systems and methods of the present invention may be implemented for example on any of the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), American National Standards Institute (ANSI) or other standard telecommunication network architecture. Other examples are the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) or The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).
The description, for purposes of explanation and not limitation, sets forth specific details, such as particular components, electronic circuitry, techniques, etc., in order to provide an understanding of the present invention. But it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced in other embodiments that depart from these specific details. In other instances, detailed descriptions of well-known methods, devices, and techniques, etc., are omitted so as not to obscure the description with unnecessary detail. Individual function blocks are shown in one or more figures. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that functions may be implemented using discrete components or multi-function hardware. Processing functions may be implemented using a programmed microprocessor or general-purpose computer. The invention is not limited to the above described and in the drawings shown embodiments but can be modified within the scope of the enclosed claims.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/SE2009/050484 | 5/5/2009 | WO | 00 | 9/23/2011 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO2010/128905 | 11/11/2010 | WO | A |
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