SyncStream: Synchronized Media Streaming System in a Peer-to-Peer Environment

With recent advances in video encoding and network technology, media streaming services are getting popular. Media streaming system based on the traditional server/client or CDN architecture has a scalability problem, and peer-to-peer media streaming system using resources of peers in the system can provide better scalability. Previous media streaming services are suited to play stored contents such as dramas or movies, which are not live or real-time. However, if these services are used to provide live streaming such as broadcasting sports events, variation among play positions of peers in the service will be a problem. The users will demand simultaneity between viewers watching the same sports game through a real-time streaming service. To solve this problem, it is necessary to coordinate the behavior of peers participating in the service. In this paper, we propose SyncStream, a peer-to- peer media streaming system that synchronizes play positions of peers in the service. SyncStream provides synchronization in the same channel to help concurrent interaction among users. In our experiment, the difference in play positions of SyncStream nodes is 1 second at the maximum. This small gap among viewers will encourage group interaction and enrich user experience.