A fast and reliable multi-sender algorithm for peer-to-peer networks

Due to special constraints in peer-to-peer (P2P) networks (such as bandwidth limitation) and because of their highly dynamic characteristics, a single node cannot provide a reliable multimedia stream to the receivers. Several multi-sender algorithms are proposed to reliably deliver a media stream to the receiver through the intrinsically unreliable P2P networks. Based on upload bandwidths and availability of peers as well as the bandwidths of the links connecting the senders and the receiver, PROMISE selects a set of active senders to maximize the expected bit-rate delivered to the receiver. By careful investigation of PROMISE, in this paper, we present why and how it deviates from finding the optimal solution. The proposed algorithm, we call IPROMISE, consistently provides a higher media quality to the receiver, with a computational complexity similar to PROMISE. We also introduce FastIPROMISE which provides the same quality as IPROMISE but requires much less computations. That is achieved by shrinking the search space.