A signaling protocol for small closed dynamic multi-peer groups

Abstract

Peer-to-peer communication models offer new possibilities for the design of collaborative applications such as video conferences. Closed multi-party video conferences, for instance, as the H.323 systems are based on a centralized approach for group management and media distribution. Centralized group servers, however, represent a single point of failure and may become a performance bottleneck. Peer-to-peer solutions avoid these shortages by moving all control and management functions to the peers. A distributed management approach requires appropriate signaling protocols that keep the management data consistent and update all peers equally. In this paper we present such a signaling protocol, called GCPIP, for the exchange of control data in small dynamic peer groups. GCPIP provides a reliable, atomic, and ordered data delivery service over point-to-point links in IP networks. It supports a dynamic join and leave of peers. We describe the essential protocol procedures of GCPIP and present measurements to prove the applicability of the approach. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2004.