An Efficient MST-Based Content-Sharing Architecture for P2P/PVR Networks

Recent advances in multimedia technologies have led various enhanced multimedia services such as high-quality content-sharing. In particular, in order to deliver and distribute high-quality content effectively, a fiber channel arbitration loop- (FC-AL) based network architecture has been presented, combined with a consumer device, such as a personal video recorder (PVR). Moreover, in order to overcome the limit on the number of PVR users, a multiple-loop architecture with shared disks has been devised without using expensive FC switches. Nevertheless, there arises the need for a practically constructible topology solution since the multiple-loop architecture is based on complete graph (CG) topology that requires the most connectivity for configuration. Therefore, we propose an innovative minimum spanning tree- (MST) based graph (MSG) topology for multiple-loop topology organization. Remarkably, the MSG-based multiple-loop architecture can determine the constant average loop size and the constant reject ratio, regardless of the number of deployed loops with much less connectivity compared to the CG case, thereby effectively supporting high-quality content sharing and distribution between PVRs.