| This paper describes a streaming media architecture in which clients can perform error recovery from one another rather than the server. This scheme reduces (via distribution amongst the clients) communications traffic back to multimedia servers that could lead to degraded service as a result of acknowledgement implosions.; The architecture is designed so that it can be integrated into modern streaming servers and clients, and deliver enhanced performance without modifying end-applications such as media viewers. As a proof of concept, prototype client and server applications have been built and tested. The server handles all initial setup of the streaming engagement as well as the second round error recovery messages that result if clients are unable to get help from other clients. Further, the client application itself accepts the original stream from the server whenever possible and asks other clients that are listening to the stream (referred to as its neighbors) for help with the first round of error recovery traffic. In preliminary experiments, it was observed that this scheme reduces traffic by up to sixty-nine percent in a system with four clients and a ten percent induced loss rate. Overall, as the number of clients increased, the reduction in traffic back up to the server was noted to average around fifty percent. |
