SYSTEM AND METHOD OF PROVIDING QUALITY OF SERVICE-ENABLED CONTENTS IN PEER-TO-PEER NETWORKS

• US 20080208976A1
• Filed: 10/15/2007
• Published: 08/28/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: ZHANG, Guanhua, LEE, Sang-kwon, CHAPALAMADUGU, Akhil, CHOI, Hyok-Sung
• Granted Patent: US 8,335,844 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/205
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1076 Resource dissemination mechanisms or network resource keeping policies for optimal resource availability in the overlay network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1085 involving dynamic management of active down- or uploading connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/61 taking into account QoS or priority requirements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06

Abstract

A system and method of providing quality of service (QoS)-enabled digital content in peer-to-peer (P2P) networks are provided. The QoS-enabled service system on the P2P network includes: a service provider capable of providing digital content; one or more user nodes receiving digital content from the service provider; one or more donor nodes lending resources for providing digital content; and a supernode receiving information on user nodes and donor nodes, and a copy of digital content from the service provider, allowing the exchange of digital content among the user nodes through P2P networking, and when at least one user node experiences a P2P networking error during the exchange of the digital content, arranging for a predetermined number of donor nodes from among the one or more donor nodes to join the P2P networking. According to the system and method, even when the function of a peer does not normally work on a P2P network, a donor as a replacement of the peer is utilized, thereby providing QoS-enabled digital content to a user requesting the digital content.

Claims

1. A quality-of-service (QoS)-enabled service system on a peer-to-peer (P2P) network, the system comprising:

a service provider which provides digital content;

a plurality of user nodes which receive the digital content from the service provider;

one or more donor nodes which lend resources for providing the digital content; and

a supernode which receives information on the user nodes and the donor nodes, and a copy of digital content from the service provider, allows exchange of digital content among the user nodes by P2P networking, and if at least one user node experiences a P2P networking error during the exchange of the digital content, arranges for at least one donor node from among the one or more donor nodes to join the P2P networking.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the user nodes are peers belonging to a P2P networking group in a predetermined area, and are capable of communication and file sharing.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein before obtaining digital content, the user nodes register with the service provider and provide their attributes to the service provider.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the one or more donor nodes are peers having their respective communication and file sharing functions in a P2P network, register with the service provider, and provide their attributes to the service provider.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the attributes include information on at least one of a download and upload bandwidth, the physical location of a node, a convenient time for uploading, or information on whether a node exists behind a network address translation device or a firewall.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the supernode receives the attributes of the registered user nodes and the registered donor nodes and a copy of digital content from the service provider.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein based on the attributes, the supernode distributes the copy of the digital content to the user nodes in the P2P network group so that content information can be exchanged among the user nodes through P2P networking.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein if a user node having some or all of the distributed digital content loses a P2P networking function, the supernode contacts all donor nodes, inquires whether the donor nodes can provide resources, selects a donor node having an appropriate bandwidth, and provides the content of the user node that lost the P2P networking function, to the selected donor node, thereby connecting the donor node to the P2P network.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein while finding the at least one donor node to join the P2P networking as a replacement of the user node which has lost the P2P networking function and arranging for the at least one donor node to join the P2P networking, the sup emode itself performs the role as the replacement of the user node.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the supernode is capable of selectively providing a method of providing QoS-enabled digital content and a method of providing QoS-non-enabled digital content to the user of the user node.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein if the at least one user node selects the method of providing QoS-enabled digital content, the supernode utilizes the one or more donor nodes to join the P2P networking as a replacement of a user node which has lost the function, and if the user node selects the method of providing QoS-non-enabled digital content, the supernode does not utilize the at least one donor node even when the user node loses the function.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein when donor nodes provide resources as the replacement, the supernode gives predetermined credits to the donor nodes.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the credits are given discriminatively according to stability, performance of the resources, and number of times the donor nodes provide the resources.

14. A method of providing a Quality of Service (QoS)-enabled digital content service on a P2P network, the method comprising:

a plurality of user nodes, and one or more donor nodes registering with a service provider providing digital content;

the service provider providing information on the user nodes and the donor nodes, and digital content to a supernode;

the supernode distributing digital content to user nodes, and enabling the user nodes to share the digital content through peer-to-peer (P2P) networking; and

if an error occurs in the P2P networking state of one of the user nodes, the supernode detecting the error, and arranging for a donor node to provide digital content through P2P networking as a replacement of the user node.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein in the registering with a service provider, the user nodes and the one or more donor nodes provide attributes, including information on a download or upload bandwidth, a physical location of the nodes, a convenient time for uploading, or on whether a node exists behind a network address translation device or a firewall, to the service provider.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein in the distributing performed by:

the supernode of the digital content to user nodes, and the

enabling of the user nodes to share the digital content through P2P networking based on the attributes, the supernode distributes the copy of the digital content to the user nodes in the P2P network group so that content information can be exchanged among the user nodes by P2P networking.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the detecting of the occurrence of the error by the supernode and the arranging of the donor node to provide digital content through P2P networking as the replacement of the user node comprises:

if a user node having some or all of the distributed digital content loses a P2P networking function, the supernode contacting all donor nodes and inquiring whether the donor nodes can provide resources;

according to responses from the donor nodes, the supernode selecting a donor node having an appropriate bandwidth, and providing the content of the user node that lost the P2P networking function, to the selected donor node; and

the supernode making the selected donor node join the P2P network and provide the digital content.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein while finding the donor node as the replacement of the user node which has lost the P2P networking function and arranging for the donor node to join the P2P networking, the supernode itself performs the role as the replacement of the user node.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising, before sharing digital content among the user nodes by P2P networking, the supernode requesting the user node to select one of a method of providing QoS-enabled digital content and a method of providing QoS-non-enabled digital content.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein if the user node selects the method of providing QoS-enabled digital content, the supernode utilizes the donor node as the replacement of the user node which has lost the function, and if the user node selects the method of providing QoS-non-enabled digital content, the supernode does not utilize the donor node even when a user node loses the function.

21. The method of claim 14, wherein when donor node provides resources as the replacement of a user node, the supernode gives predetermined credit to the donor node.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the credit is given discriminatively according to stability, performance of the resources, and number of times the donor node provides resources.

23. A method of downloading Quality of Service (QoS)-enabled digital content by peer-to-peer (P2P) networking, comprising:

a user node requesting a service provider having desired media content to provide the media content before joining a P2P network;

the service provider which receives the request, informing a closest supernode of the request and providing information on the user node to the supernode;

the supernode informing the user node of an estimated time required for QoS-enabled download, and an estimated time required for QoS-non-enabled download based on user nodes joining in the P2P network and a size of the media content;

if the user node selects the QoS-enabled download and while content downloading is performed, a network error occurs in at least one user node connected to the network, the supernode determining a donor node having appropriate and available replacement resources, and contacting the donor node; and

while the donor node and the user node establish a connection, the supernode performing as the at least one, joining in the P2P networking as a replacement of the at least one user node in which the error has occurred, and continuing the download of the content which the at least one user node has until the donor node begins to perform the function of the at least one user node.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein when the donors nodes provide resources as the replacement of the at least one user node, the supernode gives predetermined credit to the donor node.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the credit is given discriminatively according to stability, performance of the resources, and number of times the donor node provides the resources.

26. A method of providing a Quality of Service (QoS)-enabled video streaming service by peer-to-peer (P2P) networking, the method comprising:

before streaming video data, a service provider which is to provide the video data, transmitting notices, including details of the video data to be broadcast to all users;

users who are interested in the video data from among the users receiving the notices, making reservations for registering with the service provider, indicating that they will participate in the broadcasting in order to watch real-time video streaming, in which the participation of the broadcasting includes participation as a user node in order to watch the video data, and participation as a donor node in order to lend resources;

transmitting information obtained from the users and a copy of the video content to be provided, to local supernodes;

the supernodes providing the video content to a plurality of user nodes in a distributed manner, and making the video content broadcast to the user nodes which have reserved the video content, through P2P network at a reserved time; and

if QoS-enabled video streaming is requested, the supernodes monitoring the video content broadcast state and enabling seamless video streaming service, by utilizing a donor node as a replacement of a user node in which an error occurs.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein when the donor nodes provide resources as the replacement of the user node, the supernode gives predetermined credits to the donor nodes.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the credits are given discriminatively according to stability, performance of the resources, and number of times the donor nodes provide the resources.