A Multi-Source Streaming Model for Mobile Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Overlay Networks

In peer-to-peer (P2P) overlay networks, multimedia contents are in nature distributed to peers by downloading and caching. Here, a peer which transmits a multimedia content and a peer which receives the content are referred to as source and receiver peers, respectively. A peer on a mobile computer is moving in the network. Furthermore, a peer moves around computers as a mobile agent. Thus, not only receiver peers but also source peers are moving. In this paper, we would like to discuss how source peers deliver multimedia contents to receiver peers in a streaming model so that enough quality of service (QoS) required is supported in change of network and peer QoS, possibly according to the movements of the peers. In this paper, we discuss a multi-source streaming protocol where a receiver peer can receive packets of a multimedia content from multiple source peers which can support enough QoS. If a current source peer is expected to support less QoS than required, another source peer takes over the source peer and starts sending packets of the multimedia content. The receiver peer is required to receive packets of the content with enough QoS, e.g. no packet loss even if the source peer is being changed. We discuss how to change source peers so as to support enough QoS to the receiver peer.