RS-VOD: Reliable and Scalable VOD Services Provisioning System Using P2P Retransmissions

In this article, we design, implement, and analyze a scalable Live VOD services distribution architecture that offers higher video services reliability for a fraction of the current cost. Our solution (RS-VOD) is based on a P2P retransmission system where end-users retransmit lost packets to each other, thereby reducing the retransmission burden on the video servers. Video receivers tuned to the same video stream are organized in an overlay network of retransmission peers that exchange useful statistics and performance metrics describing the network conditions affecting their respective received video streams. Signalling data exchanged among retransmission peers include: loss rate measurements, packet loss pattern, round-trip-time (RTT) measurements, etc. Based on this real-time information exchange, each receiver assesses the suitability of each retransmission peer before allocating a retransmission load for each of them. We show that the service provider can use several strategies to control the process of selecting retransmission peers and outperform in different network conditions. Several decision models have been implemented and analyzed in this article. We also highlight the major findings and tradeoffs in a P2P retransmission system.