Scalable video streaming over P2P networks: A matter of harmony?

In this paper we address the problem of efficient layered video streaming over peer-to-peer networks and we propose a new receiver-driven streaming mechanism. The main design goal of our new layered video requesting policy is to optimize the overall distribution of video streams in terms of reliability and overhead. Since the layered peer-to-peer streaming problem is NP-Hard, we show that the classic approaches widely used in layered P2P streaming systems have some limitations and we propose an optimization technique based on harmony search which aims at increasing the rate of successful data transmissions for the most important video layers, while reducing the protocol overhead and ensuring load balancing among the participating peers. Analytical results have demonstrated that our new requesting policy enhances the streaming of layered video over mesh-based peer-to-peer networks and outperforms classic approaches.