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FastMesh is a proxy-based IPTV network offering low
delay and high bandwidth as needed for live IPTV
streaming services. In FastMesh, a simple server needs
to stream only to some proxies, which in turn share
their received stream with others. FastMesh has been
shown to be very effective in serving quite large
groups. It achieves close-to-optimal delay, accommodates
proxy churn and asymmetric bandwidths, is fully
distributed, and is simple to implement.
Our proxies join an overlay in a distributed manner. FastMesh
is a
mesh-based protocol for proxy-based IPTV streaming. It
achieves the following:
• Low De/ay:
Live streaming applications are
very sensitive to delay. Therefore, an overlay that offers
low source-to-proxy delay is desirable. FastMesh optimizes
its network by associating with other proxies to achieve as
low a delay as possible.
• Accommodation of proxy churn:
Since proxies
may be introduced or torn down at any time, FastMesh is
designed such that the proxy overlay structure can
accommodate this network dynamic and be robust to such
churn.
• Accommodation of asymmetric bandwidths among the
proxies: Proxies in the network may have diverse uplink
bandwidth depending on their local access network (such
as ADSL, broadband Ethernet, Wireless LAN, cable, etc.). In FastMesh, the overlay is able to meet stringent streaming
rate requirements for each proxy despite of this bandwidth
heterogeneity or asymmetry.
•
Distributed, adaptive and
simple:
The
FastMesh protocol is fully distributed; therefore, its
performance is scalable to large numbers of users. The
protocol is adaptive in the sense that it continuously
improves the overlay based on the existing heterogeneous
proxy and traffic characteristics. It is also simple and
hence implementable.
• Bandwidth-efficient: Many existing P2P
protocols have not made use of the network and backbone
bandwidth efficiently. They waste significant amounts of
bandwidth and cause network congestion. FastMesh caches the
P2P traffic for end devices (set-top boxes), so that the
Internet traffic is reshaped to achieve lower congestion.
Furthermore, not all the exiting set-top boxes have
sufficient robustness and upload bandwidth for P2P traffics.
FastMesh can overcome these weaknesses without changing the
existing infrastructures.
Our target groups are the current IPTV service providers and
content distributors locally and internationally who are
interested in scaling up their systems to accommodate more
users. Traditionally, they need to buy expensive servers and
bandwidth. Using our approach, the cost can be greatly
reduced.
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