A Topologically-Aware Overlay Tree for Efficient and Low-Latency Media Streaming

Streaming a live music concert over the Internet is a challenging task as it requires real-time, high-quality data delivery over a large number of geographically distributed nodes. In this paper we propose MusiCast, a real-time peer-to-peer multicast system for streaming midi events and compressed audio data. We present a scalable and distributed tree construction algorithm where nodes across the Internet self-organize into a low-latency tree. Our system is built ontop of the pastry DHT and takes advantage of the DHT’s properties to construct an end-toend low-latency dissemination tree using topology oriented information. The benefit of our scheme is that it is completely decentralized, allowing nodes to connect to each other using local information only, and achieves good performance by considering latency information when constructing the tree. Our experimental results illustrate the benefits of our approach.