Policy-based Resource Sharing in Streaming Overlay Networks

In this chapter, we discuss peer-to-peer media streaming overlay network architectures and introduce a policy-based architecture for streaming live media from media sources to end-users over independently owned and operated networks. This architecture (mSON) efficiently supports multiple simultaneous media streams, with different sources and user populations, through shared overlay resources. The overlay network infrastructure takes into account the existence of multiple content providers (media sources) and minimizes its footprint to use available resources most effectively. In the meanwhile, it prevents resources from being overutilized to prevent congestions, service rejections, and jitters in the streams users receive. We report experimental results that show that the policy-based mSON achieves these tasks efficiently and effectively.