A Novel On-Demand Streaming Service Based on Improved BitTorrent

In recent years, the video streaming service has become one of the most important applications. The rapid growth of users raises a big challenge to the traditional client-server VoD service. In order to provide large scale VoD service with lower server bandwidth cost, P2P technology has been introduced to VoD service. P2P based VoD service provides the same user experience as the client-server mode with a reduced server cost. In this paper, we present a novel P2P on-demand service, which utilizes the improved BT protocol for video content distribution. We focus on the following issues to improve the performance of VoD service based on BT: 1) effective scheduling policy for VoD service; 2) load balance of the system, and 3) an incentive mechanism to prevent free-rider. We employ UDP hole punching to connect with peers behind NAT device. The VoD service we proposed can provide a high quality video and user experience with a reasonable server cost.