A Lightweight Currency-Based P2P VoD Incentive Mechanism

Users in a Peer-to-Peer Video on Demand (P2P VoD) system are allowed to watch any video file at any point in time and to use VCR operations like fast forward, rewind and pause at any time, which decreases their ability to help each other and offload the server. Encouraging peers to stay in the system longer and share the video files they have downloaded completely can greatly increase peers´ cooperation and alleviate server´s load. So we propose a lightweight incentive mechanism based on virtual currency to improve the performance of the system. If a peer shares a video file which he has completely downloaded before, he will get paid by the audience peers who are in the process of watching that video. By neglecting the data exchanges among audience peers in the same video channel, we decrease the cost aroused by the incentive mechanism, and stimulate peers to share the video files they have already downloaded completely which are more stable than the video files in the watching process. Game theoretic analysis proves that the proposed incentive mechanism can significantly relieve server´s heavy load and increase users´ contributions.