Billing model with discount incentive in a P2P-cloud multimedia streaming system

Today P2P faces two important challenges: design of mechanisms to encourage users´ collaboration in multimedia live streaming services; design of reliable algorithms with QoS provision, to encourage multimedia providers employ the P2P topology in commercial streaming services. We believe that these two challenges are tightly-related and there is much to be done with respect. This paper describes a billing model based on monetary discount as incentive in a P2P multimedia streaming service. The model classifies the users according to the perceived QoS for the streaming video. We believe such service can boost up users´ cooperation, loyalty and enhance the overall system integrity and performance. Moreover the model defines the constraints for a provider´s cost and revenue when the service is leveraged on the cloud. Applying those constraints to the billing model of the streaming service, a multimedia content provider can achieve a desirable discount-revenue trade-off and better promotion of the service.