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CrossFlux: Cooperative Networks for Content Distribution in the Internet

English title CrossFlux: Cooperative Networks for Content Distribution in the Internet
Applicant Felber Pascal
Number 102819
Funding scheme SNSF Professorships
Research institution Institut d'informatique Université de Neuchâtel
Institution of higher education University of Neuchatel - NE
Main discipline Information Technology
Start/End 01.10.2004 - 31.05.2009
Approved amount 537'987.00
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Keywords (5)

Peer-to-Peer; Content Streaming; Overlay Networks; Content Distribution; Scalable Architectures

Lay Summary (English)

Lead
Lay summary
Peer-to-peer (P2P) systems, in which peer computers form a cooperativenetwork and share their resources (storage, CPU, bandwidth), haveattracted a lot of interest lately. After the apparition of the firsttruly successful P2P systems, and the significant amount of researchconducted in Academia and in the Industry, most researchers now agree thatP2P systems are more than just a fashion phenomenon. They offer greatpotential for building cooperative networks that are self-organizing,efficient, scalable, and reliable.Research in P2P networks has so far mainly focused on content storage andlookup, but little work has been done about its actual distribution. Bycapitalizing the bandwidth of peer nodes, P2P architectures offer greatpotential for addressing some of the most challenging issue of today'sInternet: the cost-effective distribution of bandwidth-intensive contentto thousands of simultaneous users and the resilience to "flash crowds" (ahuge and sudden surge of request traffic that usually leads to thecollapse of the affected server).In this project, we propose to address the problem of cooperativedistribution of streaming media and large content from a networkingperspective. We plan to specifically focus on three complementary researchdirections: first, the design of topology-aware P2P substrates specializedfor efficient content distribution; second, the push-based distribution ofstreaming content with timing constraints, such as streaming media (TV,radio); third, the pull-based distribution of large, but time-insensitivestored content. Each of these research topics will be supported upstreamby extensive analysis and modeling, and downstream by prototypeimplementations and experimental validation.This project is expected to yield not only novel research contributions,but also practical techniques for cooperative content distributionapplicable both Internet-wide and in large private networks. Thesetechniques can be of great interest to media and infrastructure providers,as well as to medium and large companies that wish to avoid the cost ofdedicated Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) for reliable contentdistribution.
Direct link to Lay Summary Last update: 21.02.2013

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Associated projects

Number Title Start Funding scheme
127271 MistNet: An Experimental Peer-to-peer Platform for the Cloud 01.01.2010 Project funding (Div. I-III)

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