Why are peers less stable in unpopular P2P streaming channels?

Abstract

In large-scale P2P live streaming systems, it is shown that peers in an unpopular channel often experience worse streaming quality than those in popular channels. In this paper, by analyzing 130 GB worth of traces from a large-scale P2P streaming system, UUSee, we observe that a large number of 'unpopular' channels, those with dozens or hundreds of concurrent peers, tend to experience inferior streaming quality. We also notice a short lifespan in these channels, which further exacerbates streaming quality. To derive useful insights towards improving streaming performance, we seek to thoroughly characterize important factors that may cause peer volatility in unpopular channels. Specifically, we conduct a comprehensive statistical analysis on the impact of various factors on peer lifespan, using survival analysis techniques. We found that the initial buffering level, the variance of peer indegree, and the peer joining time all have important effects on the lifespan of peers. © IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2009.