Network Multicast Opened by Network Operators to Be Used by P2P Applications

P2P applications create a huge amount of traffic in ISP networks, not only because of their success, but also because they do not use optimally the underlying networks. An attempt to remedy this situation is driven in the IETF ALTO (Application Layer Traffic Optimization) group where it is proposed that network operators communicate (high level) network information to applications. But network operators also use for their own offers some network services that might be valuable for overlay applications (e.g. IP multicast, caching, priorisation). In this paper, we propose a Collaboration Interface between Network operators and Applications (CINA) which extends the ALTO proposal, in particular by adding the possibility for network operators to open some of their network services to applications, allowing application to dynamically request to use a service when needed. This paper presents the CINA interface, with a focus on the IP multicast service. The performed implementation and evaluation show the feasibility of the approach and highlight its efficiency, both for the applications that can offer a better quality to their end-users and for the network operator that can better optimize the use of the network resources.