An architecture to connect disjoint multimedia networks based on node's capacity

Abstract

TCP/IP protocol suite allows building multimedia networks of nodes according to nodes' content sharing. Some of them have different types of protocols (some examples given in unstructured P2P file-sharing networks are Gnutella 2, FastTrack, OpenNap, eDonkey and so on). This paper proposes a new protocol to connect disjoint multimedia networks using the same resource or content sharing to allow multimedia content distribution. We show how nodes connect with nodes from other multimedia networks based on nodes' capacity. The system is scalable and fault-tolerant. The designed protocol, its mathematical model, the messages developed and their bandwidth cost are described. The architecture has been developed to be applied in multiple types of multimedia networks (P2P file-sharing, CDNs and so on). We have developed a general-purpose application tool with all designed features. Results show the number of octets, the number of messages and the number of broadcasts sent through the network when the protocol is running. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.