Expediting P2P Video Delivery through a Hybrid Push-Pull Protocol

Abstract

Despite the recent phenomenal success of peer-to-peer video streaming services, their stumbling performance for high-quality videos remains a major obstacle to wider acceptance. This is because high-resolution videos instantly delivered over the Internet are increasingly becoming the norm. This paper presents a novel solution to keep up with ever more challenging QoE expectations. Our proposal of a hybrid push-pull protocol consists of two key components, namely, a new push strategy and an elastic window scheme. The former empowers the hybrid protocol to make an informed push-pull decision based on chunk status and network condition, whereas the latter ensures balance between the two conflicting goals of chunk dissemination and playback deadline. The efficacy of the proposed protocol is validated through a performance study that demonstrates substantial gains compared to existing approaches.