On optimal topology in hierarchical P2P live video streaming networks

One of the solutions for live media streaming systems requiring the collective use of vastly distributed network resources is Peer-to-Peer (P2P) overlay networks. Many streaming applications, such as IPTV and Video conferencing when apply in large scale networks, have strict constraints on received throughput. A P2P media streaming system is typically built completely or partially upon a tree-based topology but the process of tree construction would have a significant impact on the total system performance. In this paper, in order to optimize the system´s average stream rate, a tree-based topology construction problem called Maximum Average Throughput Spanning Tree (MATST) is formulated. The proposed Integer Programming optimization model which is based on the Network Flow problem is aimed at creating optimal topology to maximize average throughput taking into account spanning tree constraints. The results of simulation performed with NS-2, reveal that the resulted spanning tree of our approach noticeably outperforms the previous competitive approaches.