A Hybrid Adaptive Localization Strategy for Peer-to-Peer Video on Demand

Video-on-demand (VoD) is today's standard for viewing and sharing video content over the Internet. However, the conventional client-server approach to video on demand consumes a significant amount bandwidth, pushing content publishers and content delivery networks to examine other approaches such as the use of peer-to-peer (P2P) technologies to assist in video distribution. We studied the performance impact of peer localization strategies aimed at limiting traffic exchanges between autonomous systems (ASes), and our findings suggest that peer localization can improve streaming performance while reducing inter-AS traffic, to the potential benefit of users and providers, respectively. Using a hybrid adaptive localization strategy (HALS), we allow external peers into a local mix when a swarm is outside its peak, in order to ensure a steady supply of pieces and to maintain structural robustness. Though HALS introduces additional inter-domain traffic compared to a purely localized approach, its download performance is at par or slightly better, while further reducing the content publisher's total upload volume.