Billing model with discount incentive in a P2P-cloud multimedia streaming system

Today P2P faces two important challenges: design of mechanisms to encourage users' collaboration in multimedia live streaming services; design of reliable algorithms with QoS provision, to encourage multimedia providers employ the P2P topology in commercial streaming services. We believe that these two challenges are tightly-related and there is much to be done with respect. This paper describes a billing model based on monetary discount as incentive in a P2P multimedia streaming service. The model classifies the users according to the perceived QoS for the streaming video. We believe such service can boost up users' cooperation, loyalty and enhance the overall system integrity and performance. Moreover the model defines the constraints for a provider's cost and revenue when the service is leveraged on the cloud. Applying those constraints to the billing model of the streaming service, a multimedia content provider can achieve a desirable discount-revenue trade-off and better promotion of the service.