Research On Edge Network Streaming Media Distribution Technology

Large-scale streaming media distribution has gradually become the most importantand potential Internet application. Since the “best-effort”packet forwarding feature ofcurrent Internet’s network layer and mismatching between application layer solutionsand underlying network information, the design of large-scale streaming videoapplication over Internet is still a challenging study. Meanwhile, the evolution ofInternet shows some arresting trends that bring new opportunities. For example, theseparation between data transmission and content negotiation, the increasing user edgenetwork, uniform In-Network Storage capability and content-centric network design.After deep analysis of current mainstream solutions and the evolution of networkinfrastructure, this dissertation points out that in order to seek a sound solution of thelarge-scale streaming media distribution problem, researchers shoud study requirementsof different network stakeholders involved in the content distribution process firstly, andthen put their focus on effective utilization of all possible network resources, especiallythe networkwide storage resources. Therefore, contributions of this dissertation can beconcluded as follows:(1) Given the aggregation effect of edge network users’ media streamingrequirements and the potential storage resources within edge network, we propose anEdge to Edge Media streaming Service Model, named E2EMSM. Generally, it is tosome extent similar that network interest and streaming media service requirements ofusers from the same edge network. Considering this fact, we can achieve the designapproach,“high-efficiency transmission in the core, and diversified services in theedge”, by dividing the whole network space of Internet into two parts, the coretransmission network space and the edge service network space. To deploy somerelative network infrastructure, such as the new content storage enabled networkswitching equipment which is named NCR, at the aggregate point of edge network, wepropose the Edge-to-Edge Media streaming Service Model, named E2EMSM. Thesolution which is based on this model, can take full advantage of the aggregation effectto optimize distribution process, reduce flow requirements, and improve service quality.(2) An edge network storage resource model, named ERSM, is constructed. On thisbasis, a novel streaming media content distribution model, named Put/Get, is presented.And then, a heuristic streaming media content deployment algorithm, named HEA, ispresented. There are kinds of storage resources within edge network area, such as theserver’s storage resources, storage resources on the user terminal, and the cacheresources on the new network switching equipment (NCR). To describe these potentialstorage resources, we construct the edge network storage resource model, named ERSM.On the basis of cache resource on NCRs, we propose a new edge network streaming media distribution model, the Put/Get model, which uses the cache resource on NCRs asthe aggregation point of data forwarding. Under this way, the reality data distributionpath can match well with the underlying network topology, to achieve the maximumutilization of network resources, and improve the efficiency of streaming mediadistribution. And then, we propose a heuristic streaming media content deploymentalgorithm, named HEA, which is based on the assumption that the probability of userrequest. It can reduce server workloads and the overall network cost of streaming mediadistribution within edge network.(3) An edge network streaming media distributed storage system, namedBufferBank, is presented, which is to concentrate the use of free storage resources onusers’treminal. It is mainly composed of three parts, the application client (BBA),management server (BBM), and the depositor (BBD). It takes incentive similar to reallife banking system, where BBDs are encouraged to deposite their free storageresources into BufferBank and these resources are concentrated to manage and belended to upper applications by BBM.(4) Based on the NetMagic hardware platform, a streaming media router with dualforwarding engine, named NCR, is presented. The basic idea of NCR is to increase thecontent-centric routing mechanism on conventional IP router, which will make edgenetwork service fit the dominant network usage. By manage a user shared content indexon NCR, we can mitigate the stress of read/write operation on content storeimplemented on NDN Router, and then improve the forwarding speed. The forwardingengine of NCR prototype implemented on NetMagic hardware platform has beendiscussed.