Integration and Innovation of PCDN--P2P technology and CDN

[Streaming media network] Abstract: A brand new idea is to introduce P2P Technology in CDN networks. This mode can effectively improve the CDN service capability without increasing the cost, and effectively avoid the disadvantages of P2P applications, it is the most ideal Media Service bearer platform solution under the current operator's network conditions.

 

 

P2P technology is a boom that has emerged in the last two years. Many Internet companies in China have been using P2P technology. At that time, the concept of P2P has swept the Internet market. However, P2P applications still have problems. The prevalence of P2P services may result in a storm of network traffic. Lack of news supervision, a vacuum in content copyright management, and popular piracy may lead to a virus; it damages telecom operators and the industrial chain.

On the other hand, as a traditional carrier-level CDN content delivery network, in the past many years, it plays a key role in accelerating streaming media for operators, implementing download, live and on-demand streaming media, managing streaming media platforms, and intelligent distribution and control, however, because the core of CDN is still based on the centralized server structure, it is closely linked with region-based control, and it is difficult to reduce its expansion costs. In addition, the traditional CDN technology still has certain defects in the adaptability to burst traffic and fault tolerance during peak periods. With the rapid increase in the number of users, CDN applications are facing great challenges.

P2P technology and the inherent defects of CDN have all put forward severe challenges to their business development. How to find a set of solutions that can achieve low-cost expansion, effective supervision, effective management, service assurance, and regional control has become the most pressing problem. Let's first review CDN and P2P technologies.

Brief Review of CDN technology and P2P Technology

CDN stands for content delivery network (CDN), a distributed Media Service Technology Platform Based on the C/S structure. It is a widely used platform with high technical maturity. The purpose is to add a new network architecture in the existing Internet, and publish the content that users need to access to the nearest node and the best service quality through intelligent policies, at the same time, users are automatically scheduled to corresponding nodes through the background service to provide users with the best service. This solution effectively relieves Internet network congestion and increases the response speed for users to access websites. It comprehensively solves the problem of slow user access response due to small network bandwidth, large user traffic, and unevenly distributed outlets.

Although traditional CDN technology can accelerate streaming media to a certain extent, it can achieve download, live broadcast and on-demand video. However, its core is still based on the centralized server structure, which is closely linked with region-based control, making it difficult to reduce its expansion costs. In addition, the traditional CDN technology still has certain defects in the adaptability to burst traffic and fault tolerance during peak periods. With the rapid increase in the number of users, CDN applications are facing great challenges.

P2P technology breaks the traditional client/server model and is a platform solution based on the non-centralized services of peer nodes. The rapid development of P2P technology has rapidly changed the traditional order of the entire internet. "Decentralization" is in line with the Web2.0 technology trend. Especially in the streaming media field, the peer-to-peer computing mode greatly improves the utilization of resource sharing and can make full use of idle time to distribute data at a low cost to avoid congestion, provides stream services with high real-time performance and fault tolerance. It opened up a new path for streaming media services.
However, P2P applications still have problems. The prevalence of P2P services may result in a storm of network traffic. Lack of news supervision, a vacuum in content copyright management, and popular piracy may lead to a virus; it damages telecom operators and the industrial chain. In addition, the emerging P2P products use different topology and algorithm models, lack of standard systems, and unclear application models. These problems impede the further development of P2P technology into a reliable operator-level technical platform.

Advantages and disadvantages of CDN and P2P Technology

The following is a simple analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of CDN and P2P technologies. Through analysis, we can see that in terms of scalability, content copyright, user management effectiveness, QoS, and traffic orderliness, CDN and P2P technologies have their own strengths and are basically completely complementary.

	CDN	P2P
Scalability	High expansion cost	Low-cost Scaling
Content Copyright	Manageable	Unmanageable
User management validity	Efficient user management	No effective user management
QoS service	Guaranteed Service	Unable to guarantee
Traffic orderliness	Traffic Area Control	Unordered

Table 1 advantages and disadvantages of CDN and P2P

That is to say, P2P and CDN technologies are completely complementary in terms of several key points. If they can be effectively combined, they must be a more perfect combination. As a result, a brand-new technology is created in this way.

Integration and Innovation of CDN and P2P Technology -- the birth of pcdn Concept

A new idea is to introduce P2P Technology in the CDN network. This mode can effectively improve the CDN service capability without increasing the cost, and effectively avoid the disadvantages of P2P applications, it is the most ideal Media Service bearer platform solution under the current operator's network conditions.
Sihua pcdn is a stream service bearer platform solution that introduces P2P Technology in CDN products. It is the inheritance and development of sinhua contex series ○ note CDN products. In addition to its functions, it also provides external P2P services.
The core design concept of pcdn products is to introduce P2P autonomous domains to the Edge Nodes of the CDN network. A P2P autonomous domain is formed by a single or several contex edge node devices and end users covered by them as peer entities. Resources are shared using P2P Technology in the domain, but no traffic exchange occurs between autonomous domains.
 

Figure 1 principles of P2P + CDN Integration

By smoothly connecting the two networks with different structures, the network can fully absorb the advantages of P2P while effectively protecting existing CDN resources, and implement P2P services for carriers.

Main advantages of pcdn

Specifically, the integration of P2P and CDN has the following advantages:

1. Improvement of stream service capability

The content transmitted by P2P is different from the content of the original CDN. The content (including files and streams) is sliced on the core node based on the P2P protocol, p2P users will follow these rules to complete P2P sharing. The introduction of P2P in the edge layer greatly reduces the pressure on edge servers and improves the efficiency of file transmission and streaming media transmission.

P2P technology makes full use of users' idle uplink bandwidth, so that operators can provide more services to more users through fewer edge servers, respond to the challenges posed by the rapidly growing number of customers at a low cost.

2. Manageable P2P + CDN Networks

To avoid traffic hedging on the backbone network, the P2P Traffic is strictly restricted to the same edge node through a centralized distributed architecture. In this way, the advantages of P2P and CDN are inherited, and the shortcomings of both parties are abandoned to avoid traffic disorder and storms on the telecom backbone network, enhancing network manageability and high service reliability. Through the client, you can monitor users and monitor traffic.

3. Customer Experience Improvement

On the one hand, the combination of P2P and CDN enables limited service capabilities to provide Streaming Media Services for more users. The existence of super seeds ensures the service quality. On the other hand, the application of P2P technology can also effectively prevent the impact on service quality caused by network jitter.