ISPeer

ISPeer: ISP-friendly Peer-assisted Content Distribution

ISPeer Project Team

Head	György Dan, KTH Stockholm
	Tobias Hoßfeld, University of Würzburg
	George D. Stamoulis, AUEB Athens
	Piotr Cholda, AGH Krakow

Researchers	Simon Oechsner
	Frank Lehrieder
	Ioanna Papapfili
	Rafal Stankiewicz
	Robert Wojcik
	Jerzy Domzal

Summary

A variety of peer-to-peer content distribution systems have emerged in recent years that use logical overlays on top of the physical Internet infrastructure for distributing content among the users. In these peer-to-peer systems the available resources of the end users are typically utilized to help the content dissemination process: the end users assist the system by storing data locally and by uploading data to other users. Peer-to-peer file-sharing systems have been the dominant source of traffic in the Internet over the past years. The recent rise of the popularity of streaming video services, like YouTube, shows however that there is sufficient interest for video-on-demand and hence it can become a major source of Internet traffic in the future. Consequently, peer-to-peer video streaming applications, which offer either video-on-demand, live streaming or both, are expected to gain popularity. There are already a number of commercial peer-to-peer applications for video distribution, for example, Joost, PPLive, Zattoo, SopCast, and TVAnts.

The large amount of data exchanged in overlay applications is a significant source of costs for Internet service providers (ISPs). Overlays typically span the networks of several ISPs, and due to the logical separation of the overlay and the physical network topology, content is often exchanged between end users that reside in different ISPs. Such inter-domain traffic leads to interconnection costs for the ISPs. Consequently, an ISP would like to (i) control and manage the traffic from overlay applications in order to reduce its traffic costs and (ii) compete with the existing applications by offering data distribution services himself instead of being just a bit pipe.

In the context of this project we will consider the problem of ISP managed peer-assisted content distribution systems for video-on-demand streaming, as opposed to a centralized content distribution system that is used nowadays in most video-on-demand applications. Using a peer-assisted content distribution system the ISP can reduce its CAPEX costs by saving on server capacity, and it can provide an efficient and robust content distribution system with a high availability of the content. Using such a system, an ISP has a technical incentive to attract many customers to use its service, because the performance of the peer-assisted CDN increases with the number of users.

In order to reduce the costs due to inter-domain traffic across the network borders of an ISP, the ISP as provider of the CDN has different options to control the overlay traffic. On one hand, additional entities, like caches, can be installed. On the other hand, the ISP can provide the means so that sophisticated cooperation strategies can be employed among the peers, e.g., they can take into account the network topology or any other useful information, and this cooperation might lead to a more ISP-friendly way of content distribution.

The aim of the proposed specific EuroNF project is the development of a cooperation strategy using the example of a peer-assisted content distribution overlay for video streaming. We consider that the ISP offers a peer-assisted content distribution system, which means that a cooperative interaction between the overlay and the ISP is possible. To be more precise, our main objectives are:

Identify requirements for ISP-friendly content distribution
Identify the network-related information that should be interchanged between the ISP and the overlay
Develop a cooperation framework which takes into account useful information from the ISP for topology forming and the resource management in the overlay
Determine and evaluate the gain obtained by using the proposed solution

Phone Conferences

September 16th, 2008, 10-11am, Kick-off meeting
October 21st, 2008, 10-11am, WP1 discussion and survey paper
November 27th, 2008, 2-3pm, discuss draft of paper
January 13th, 2009, 2:30-3:30pm, pre-final version
January 26th, 2009, 2-3pm, final version
February 26th, 2009, 1:30-2:30pm, plans for WP2 and WP3, status of simulations
April 28th, 2009, 2-3pm, first initial results for WP2 and WP3 from partners
May 26th, 2009, 2-3pm, results for WP2 and WP3, proposals for joint papers

Meetings

Physical meeting in Würzburg, March 18th, 2009, 1-6pm

Other Stuff

restricted access to the shared web repository.

Article[ to top ]

Interaction Patterns between P2P Content Distribution Systems and ISPs. Dán, György; Stamoulis, George D.; Hoßfeld, Tobias; Oechsner, Simon; Cholda, Piotr; Stankiewicz, Rafal; Papafili, Ioanna. In to be published in IEEE Communications Magazine. 2010.
- [ Abstract ]
- [ BibTeX ]
- [ EndNote ]
- [ Download ]
Peer-to-peer (P2P) content distribution systems are a major source of traffic in the Internet, but the application layer protocols they use are mostly unaware of the underlying network in accordance with the layered structure of the Internet’s protocol stack. Nevertheless, the need for improved network efficiency and the business interests of Internet service providers (ISPs) are both strong drivers towards a cross-layer approach in peer-to-peer protocol design, calling for P2P systems that would in some way interact with the ISPs. Recent research shows that the interaction, which can rely on information provided by both parties, can be mutually beneficial. In this paper first we give an overview of the kinds of information that could potentially be exchanged between the P2P systems and the ISPs, and discuss their usefulness and the ease of obtaining and exchanging them. We also present a classification of the possible approaches for interaction based on the level of involvement of the ISPs and the P2P systems, and we discuss the potential strengths and the weaknesses of these approaches.

@article{info3-article-2010-78, abstract = {Peer-to-peer (P2P) content distribution systems are a major source of traffic in the Internet, but the application layer protocols they use are mostly unaware of the underlying network in accordance with the layered structure of the Internet’s protocol stack. Nevertheless, the need for improved network efficiency and the business interests of Internet service providers (ISPs) are both strong drivers towards a cross-layer approach in peer-to-peer protocol design, calling for P2P systems that would in some way interact with the ISPs. Recent research shows that the interaction, which can rely on information provided by both parties, can be mutually beneficial. In this paper first we give an overview of the kinds of information that could potentially be exchanged between the P2P systems and the ISPs, and discuss their usefulness and the ease of obtaining and exchanging them. We also present a classification of the possible approaches for interaction based on the level of involvement of the ISPs and the P2P systems, and we discuss the potential strengths and the weaknesses of these approaches.}, author = {Dán, György and Stamoulis, George D. and Hoßfeld, Tobias and Oechsner, Simon and Cholda, Piotr and Stankiewicz, Rafal and Papafili, Ioanna}, journal = {to be published in IEEE Communications Magazine}, keywords = {ispeer}, title = {Interaction Patterns between P2P Content Distribution Systems and ISPs}, year = 2010 }

%0 Journal Article %1 info3-article-2010-78 %A Dán, György %A Stamoulis, George D. %A Hoßfeld, Tobias %A Oechsner, Simon %A Cholda, Piotr %A Stankiewicz, Rafal %A Papafili, Ioanna %D 2010 %J to be published in IEEE Communications Magazine %T Interaction Patterns between P2P Content Distribution Systems and ISPs %X Peer-to-peer (P2P) content distribution systems are a major source of traffic in the Internet, but the application layer protocols they use are mostly unaware of the underlying network in accordance with the layered structure of the Internet’s protocol stack. Nevertheless, the need for improved network efficiency and the business interests of Internet service providers (ISPs) are both strong drivers towards a cross-layer approach in peer-to-peer protocol design, calling for P2P systems that would in some way interact with the ISPs. Recent research shows that the interaction, which can rely on information provided by both parties, can be mutually beneficial. In this paper first we give an overview of the kinds of information that could potentially be exchanged between the P2P systems and the ISPs, and discuss their usefulness and the ease of obtaining and exchanging them. We also present a classification of the possible approaches for interaction based on the level of involvement of the ISPs and the P2P systems, and we discuss the potential strengths and the weaknesses of these approaches.

Inproceedings[ to top ]

The Impact of Caching on BitTorrent-like Peer-to-peer Systems. Lehrieder, Frank; Dán, György; Hoßfeld, Tobias; Oechsner, Simon; Singeorzan, Vlad. In 10th IEEE International Conference on Peer-to-Peer Computing 2010 - IEEE P2P 2010. Best Paper Award, Delft, the Netherlands, 2010.
- [ Abstract ]
- [ BibTeX ]
- [ EndNote ]
- [ Download ]
Peer-to-peer file-sharing systems are responsible for a significant share of the traffic between Internet service providers (ISPs) in the Internet. In order to decrease their peer-to-peer related transit traffic costs, many ISPs have deployed caches for peer-to-peer traffic in recent years. We consider how the different types of peer-to-peer caches - caches already available on the market and caches expected to become available in the future - can possibly affect the amount of inter-ISP traffic. We develop a fluid model that captures the effects of the caches on the system dynamics of peer-to-peer networks, and show that caches can have adverse effects on the system dynamics depending on the system parameters. We combine the fluid model with a simple model of inter-ISP traffic and show that the impact of caches cannot be accurately assessed without considering the effects of the caches on the system dynamics. We identify scenarios when caching actually leads to increased transit traffic. Our analytical results are supported by extensive simulations and experiments with real BitTorrent clients.

@inproceedings{info3-inproceedings-2010-387, abstract = {Peer-to-peer file-sharing systems are responsible for a significant share of the traffic between Internet service providers (ISPs) in the Internet. In order to decrease their peer-to-peer related transit traffic costs, many ISPs have deployed caches for peer-to-peer traffic in recent years. We consider how the different types of peer-to-peer caches - caches already available on the market and caches expected to become available in the future - can possibly affect the amount of inter-ISP traffic. We develop a fluid model that captures the effects of the caches on the system dynamics of peer-to-peer networks, and show that caches can have adverse effects on the system dynamics depending on the system parameters. We combine the fluid model with a simple model of inter-ISP traffic and show that the impact of caches cannot be accurately assessed without considering the effects of the caches on the system dynamics. We identify scenarios when caching actually leads to increased transit traffic. Our analytical results are supported by extensive simulations and experiments with real BitTorrent clients.}, address = {Best Paper Award, Delft, the Netherlands}, author = {Lehrieder, Frank and Dán, György and Hoßfeld, Tobias and Oechsner, Simon and Singeorzan, Vlad}, booktitle = {10th IEEE International Conference on Peer-to-Peer Computing 2010 - IEEE P2P 2010}, keywords = {ispeer}, month = {08}, title = {The Impact of Caching on BitTorrent-like Peer-to-peer Systems}, year = 2010 }

%0 Conference Paper %1 info3-inproceedings-2010-387 %A Lehrieder, Frank %A Dán, György %A Hoßfeld, Tobias %A Oechsner, Simon %A Singeorzan, Vlad %B 10th IEEE International Conference on Peer-to-Peer Computing 2010 - IEEE P2P 2010 %C Best Paper Award, Delft, the Netherlands %D 2010 %T The Impact of Caching on BitTorrent-like Peer-to-peer Systems %X Peer-to-peer file-sharing systems are responsible for a significant share of the traffic between Internet service providers (ISPs) in the Internet. In order to decrease their peer-to-peer related transit traffic costs, many ISPs have deployed caches for peer-to-peer traffic in recent years. We consider how the different types of peer-to-peer caches - caches already available on the market and caches expected to become available in the future - can possibly affect the amount of inter-ISP traffic. We develop a fluid model that captures the effects of the caches on the system dynamics of peer-to-peer networks, and show that caches can have adverse effects on the system dynamics depending on the system parameters. We combine the fluid model with a simple model of inter-ISP traffic and show that the impact of caches cannot be accurately assessed without considering the effects of the caches on the system dynamics. We identify scenarios when caching actually leads to increased transit traffic. Our analytical results are supported by extensive simulations and experiments with real BitTorrent clients.