Effective regulation of chunks for improved video continuity in P2P Video-on-Demand

Today, VOD (Video on Demand) has become remarkably popular due to the availability of rich video content and the wide spread usage of digital devices. The increased popularity has led to a rapid increase in the network load. P2P (Peer-to-Peer) networks replicate chunks of video to improve the availability and reduce network load. However, the challenge is to have an effective chunk regulation that minimizes video startup delay, stalling time and missed chunks. In this paper, we propose an effective chunk regulation algorithm that uses a ratio `p´ based on the number of peers that are willing to upload the chunks and a ratio `t´ based on the number of peers that do not have the chunks. This regulates the availability of chunks in the neighborhood and reduces the occurrence of rare and missed chunks; moreover, this decreases startup delay and stalling time during the playback when compared to the other methods. Our comparative study and discussions show that the proposed algorithm is effective in improving video continuity.