Experimental comparison of a tree-based and a mesh-based peer-to-peer video streaming system

1. This invited paper is based on the findings reported in [3].

Abstract

We analyse two commercial peer-to-peer (P2P) video streaming systems via active measurements: a tree-based overlay multicast and a mesh-based overlay. Our controlled IP test bed allows us to reproduce near-identical network conditions for both systems and test them under varying network conditions and peer behaviour. We report on how these systems adapt to heterogeneous networks and peer behaviour. Our results include quality-of-service information in terms of the fraction of the total video stream received by each peer for live playback. We also report the server bandwidth versus P2P bandwidth consumed by the system under different conditions. The dynamic behaviour of the P2P video streaming systems is captured via measuring the size of interactions (bytes downloaded) among peers. Finally, we report the correlation between the underlying traffic-shaped bandwidth assigned to a peer and the actual amount of P2P data uploaded by the peer. Our analysis shows that the mesh-based overlay mimics the underlying IP network more closely than the tree-based overlay, indicating that the former relays data volumes more proportionally to the upload capacities. On the other hand, the tree-based system is more efficient in bandwidth usage.

Keywords:

• P2P
• video streaming
• tree-based overlay
• mesh-based overlay

Acknowledgement

The author thanks Pierpaolo Baccichet, Bernd Girod, Aditya A Mavlankar and Jatinder Pal Singh for the cooperation leading to the initial work in this direction. The author also thanks the P2P system providers for providing their P2P streaming systems for academic study.

Notes

1. This invited paper is based on the findings reported in [3].