LAN-awareness: improved P2P live streaming

Abstract

The popularity of P2P streaming systems has rapidly created extensive, far-reaching Internet traffic. Recent studies have demonstrated that localizing cross-ISP (Internet service provider) traffic can mitigate this challenge. Another trend shows that households own an increasing number of devices, which are sharing a LAN of 2 or more peers. To this date, however, no study has investigated the potential of localizing traffic within LANs. In our presented work, we propose the concept of LAN-awareness and introduce its threefold benefits: 1) reducing Internet streaming traffic, 2) lowering stream server workload, and 3) improving streaming quality. First we conduct a large-scale measurement on PPLive, confirming that a considerable number of peers (up to 21%) are connected to the LANs having 2 or more peers. Recognizing the opportunity of localizing traffic within LANs, we discuss the principles to construct a LAN-aware overlay and propose a heuristic. The results of our trace-driven simulations confirm the benefits outlined above.