On Optimal Peer-to-Peer Topology Construction with Maximum Peer Bandwidth Contributions

As the number of participating peers scales up, multimedia streaming applications use amount of bandwidth from media streaming servers. As in previous works, we employ peer-to-peer (P2P) networks to mitigate unnecessary burden on the servers by using the upload bandwidth of peers to serve other peers. We formulate the network topology optimization problem as a minimization of server bandwidth cost, which leads to scalability of the system with respect to the number of peers participating in the session. We analytically design a topology that achieves this optimum, and a corresponding algorithm that generates it in practice. Using a simulation-based comparison study, we show that the optimization is achieved in a high-churn peer-to-peer network with realistic peer uplink capacities and link delays