P2p video-on-demand: Steady state and scalability

Abstract—The fundamental P2P principle that downloading peers help other peers can be applied in the context of on-demand streaming of stored content (video-on-demand). This represents a demanding application combining aspects of other well-known P2P applications, i.e., live streaming and traditional file sharing. We seek to determine the conditions when the system operates properly. A deterministic fluid model is derived that explicitly takes into account the video transfer and playback phases. The analytical results comprise the analysis of the uniqueness of the steady state and its local stability. These results are complemented with extensive simulations from the corresponding stochastic model, as well as traces from a more realistic BitTorrent simula-tor implementing a windowing algorithm. Finally, we provide a synthesis of the analytical results and the numerical validations to characterize the prerequisites under which the piece retrieval rate exceeds the video viewing rate and under which conditions this is achieved independent of peer arrival rate. I