Controlling P2P-CDN Live Streaming Services at SDN-Enabled Multi-Access Edge Datacenters

Recognizing the shortcomings of current hybrid peer-to-peer (P2P) content-distribution network (CDN) video solutions and the potential of emerging multi-access edge datacenters, we propose a novel P2P-CDN service model that is hosted at software defined networks (SDN)-enabled multi-access edge datacenters operated by network service providers (NSP). An important feature of the proposed service architecture is that both CDN access by peers and P2P video streaming between peers within edge access networks are fully controlled by cooperation of the video content provider (VCP) and NSP to optimize video service key performance indicators (KPI). The proposed fully controlled P2P-CDN architecture with P2P group formation and chunk scheduling managed at edge datacenters reduces the load on CDN servers while overcoming quality of experience (QoE) fluctuations per flow and unfairness between multiple heterogeneous video-resolution clients over reserved access network slices. Other advantages of this service include: i) better video quality and lower delay for clients; ii) better use of edge network resources; iii) avoiding illegal, unauthorized P2P content sharing. To the best of our knowledge, there are no solutions in the literature that address P2P-CDN services managed at NSP-edge datacenters combining P2P-assisted CDN, SDN-assisted edge computing, and premium service over reserved slices. Experimental results show that the proposed P2P-CDN service deployed at SDN-enabled edge datacenters provides excellent service KPI compared to other state-of-the-art solutions.