On demand peer-to-peer video streaming with multiple description coding

• US 7,633,887 B2
• Filed: 01/23/2006
• Issued: 12/15/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/21/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Polytechnic University (New York University)
• Original Assignee: Polytechnic University (New York University)
• Inventors: Panwar, Shivendra S., Ross, Keith W., Wang, Yao
• Primary Examiner(s): Chou; Albert T
• Application Number:
  US11/337,833
• Publication Number:
  US 20060190615A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,422 Days
• Field of Search: 370/252, 370/254, 709/229, 709/231
• US Class Current: 370/254
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 Media network packetisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1046 Joining mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1048 Departure or maintenance mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1085 involving dynamic management of active down- or uploading connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2668 Creating a channel for a dedicated end-user group, e.g. insertion of targeted commercials based on end-user profiles information retrieval from the Internet by querying with filtering and personalisation G06F16/9535; arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast H04H20/10; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; adaptation of message content in packet-switching networks H04L51/063
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/632 using a connection between clients on a wide area network, e.g. setting up a peer-to-peer communication via Internet for retrieving video segments from the hard-disk of other client devices broadcast-related systems characterised by transmission among terminal devices H04H60/80; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6473 Monitoring network processes errors for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64792 Controlling the complexity of the content stream, e.g. by dropping packets intermediate media network packet handling H04L65/765; proxy provisioning conversion or adaptation for reducing the amount or size of exchanged application data H04L67/5651; negotiation of resources in wireless networks H04W28/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8405 represented by keywords

Abstract

A peer-to-peer novel video streaming scheme is described in which each peer stores and streams videos to the requesting client peers. Each video is encoded into multiple descriptions and each description is placed on a different node. If a serving peer disconnects in the middle of a streaming session, the system searches for a replacement peer that stores the same video description and has sufficient uplink bandwidth. Employing multiple description coding in a peer-to-peer based network improves the robustness of the distributed streaming content in the event a serving peer is lost. Video quality can be maintained in the presence of server peers being lost. The video codec design and network policies have a significant effect on the streamed video quality. The system performance generally improves as the number of descriptions M for the video increases, which implies that a higher video quality can be obtained with the same network loading.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for provisioning nodes in a peer-to-peer video streaming network, the method comprising:

accepting information of available server peers in the peer-to-peer video streaming network wherein the accepted information of available server peers includes an uplink bandwidth between each of the server peers and a transport network portion of the peer-to-peer video streaming network;

determining on the computer video sub-streams for the video and server peers on which to store the video sub-streams using both a distortion constraint and the accepted information of available server peers by determining an acceptance probability of a video session subject to the video session meeting the distortion constraint; and

transmitting the determined video sub-streams to the server peers on which it was determined to store the video sub-streams.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the maximum distortion constraint is denoted as d_max, M denotes a number of descriptions of the video, r denotes a bit rate of each description, and Q denotes a number of ongoing video sessions, with each session consisting of a multiple sub-streams, and

wherein the act of determining video sub-streams for the video and server peers on which to store the video sub-streams using both the accepted maximum distortion constraint and the accepted information of available server peers comprises:

calculating

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the determined video sub-streams are multiple description-forward error correction partitions.

4. For use in a peer-to-peer video serving network including a plurality of peer nodes, each peer node being capable of acting as at least one of a client peer and a server peer, a computer-implemented method comprising:

accepting and storing peer information of the peer-to-peer video serving network;

accepting a video file for serving to a requesting client peer of the peer-to-peer video serving network;

provisioning server peers of the peer-to-peer video serving network to serve sub-streams of the video file;

accepting a request for the movie from a client peer of the peer-to-peer video serving network;

identifying server peers provisioned to serve sub-streams of the video file;

establishing a peer-to-peer session between the requesting client peer and the identified server peers;

wherein at least a subset of the identified server peers-transmit a sub-stream of the video file to the requesting client peer;

wherein the requesting client peer receives the served sub-streams;

assembles a video from the received served sub-streams; and

stores or renders the assembled video wherein at least one alternative server peer transmits a sub-stream of the video file to the requesting client peer after a determination that the assembled video quality is not acceptable based on an acceptance probability of a video session subject to the video session meeting a distortion constraint and a bandwidth over a transport network between the client and the server.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 wherein the act of identifying server peers provisioned to serve sub-streams of the video file is performed by a node other than the requesting server peer, and

wherein the act of establishing the peer-to-peer session between the requesting client peer and the identified server peers is initiated by a node other than the requesting client peer.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 wherein the act of identifying server peers provisioned to serve sub-streams of the video file is performed by a node other than the requesting server peer, and

wherein the act of establishing the peer-to-peer session between the requesting client peer and the identified server peers is initiated by the requesting client peer.

7. A management facility for use in a peer-to-peer video serving network, the network comprising a plurality of peer nodes, each peer node being capable of acting as at least one of a client peer and a server peer, the management facility comprising:

a computing device comprising a processing unit,

a memory coupled to said computing device, the memory having stored thereon;

a set of computer executable instructions configured to cause the computing device determine video sub-streams for a video and server peers on which to store the video sub-streams using both a distortion constraint by determining an acceptance probability of a video session subject to the video session meeting the distortion constraint and information of available server peers wherein the information of available server peers includes an uplink bandwidth between each of the server peers and a transport network portion of the peer-to-peer video streaming network; and

a set of computer executable instructions configured to cause the computing device to transmit the determined video sub-streams to the server peers on which it was determined to store the video sub-streams to provision them to serve sub-streams of the video file.

8. The management facility of claim 7 wherein the set of computer executable configured to cause the computing device to determine video sub-streams for the video and server peers on which to store the video sub-streams using both the accepted maximum distortion constraint and information of available server peers comprises computer executable instructions that cause the computing device to:

9. The management facility of claim 7 wherein the determined video sub-streams are multiple description-forward error correction partitions.

10. The management facility of claim 7 the memory having stored thereon:

a set of computer executable instructions configured to cause the computing device to accept a request for the movie from a client peer of the peer-to-peer video serving network;

a set of computer executable instructions configured to cause the computing device to identify server peers provisioned to serve sub-streams of the video file; and

a set of computer executable instructions configured to cause the computing device to facilitate the establishment of a peer-to-peer session between the requesting client peer and the identified server peers.

11. The management facility of claim 10 wherein the set of computer executable instructions configured to cause the computing device to facilitate the establishment of a peer-to-peer session between the requesting client peer and the identified server peers comprise a set of computer executable instructions configured to cause the computing device to establish, with the management facility, a session between the requesting client peer and the identified server peers.

12. The management facility of claim 10 wherein the set of computer executable instructions configured to cause the computing device to facilitate the establishment of a peer-to-peer session between the requesting client peer and the identified server peers comprise a set of computer executable instructions configured to cause the computing device to provide an identification of the identified server peers to the requesting client peer to enable the requesting client peer to establish a session between itself and each of the identified server peers.

13. The management facility of claim 10 further comprising:

a set of computer executable instructions configured to cause the computing device to identify at least one alternative server peers provisioned to serve at least one of the sub-streams of the video file in the event of video degradation; and

a set of computer executable instructions configured to cause the computing device to facilitate the establishment a peer-to-peer session between the requesting client peer and each of the at least one identified alternative server peers.

14. The management facility of claim 13 wherein the set of computer executable instructions configured to cause the computing device to facilitate the establishment of a peer-to-peer session between the requesting client peer and the identified at least one alternative server peer comprises a set of computer executable instructions to cause the computing device to establish, with the management facility, a session between the requesting client peer and the identified at least one alternative server peers.

15. The management facility of claim 13 wherein the set of computer executable instructions configured to cause the computing device to facilitate the establishment of a peer-to-peer session between the requesting client peer and the identified at least one alternative server peer comprises a set of computer executable instructions configured to cause the computing device to provide an identification of the identified at least one alternative server peers to the requesting client peer to enable the requesting client peer to establish a session between itself and each of the identified at least one alternative server peers.

16. The management facility of claim 7 wherein at least some of the peers have asymmetric connections with a transport network portion of the peer-to-peer video serving network such that a bandwidth of an upstream connection is less than the bandwidth of a downstream connection.

17. The management facility of claim 7 further comprising:

storage for storing a directory of server peers and sub-streams stored on the server peers.

18. The management facility of claim 17 wherein the directory further includes state information of the server peers.

19. The management facility of claim 18 wherein the state information includes connectivity of the server to a transport network portion of the peer-to-peer video serving network.

20. The management facility of claim 18 wherein the state information includes available storage of the server peer.

21. The management facility of claim 18 wherein the state information includes upstream bandwidth of the server peer to a transport network portion of the peer-to-peer video serving network.