NMSL - User contributions [en-ca]

Network and Multimedia Systems Lab (NMSL)

2013-04-15T13:54:51Z

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'''Welcome to the Network Systems Lab (NSL) at SFU!'''

We are interested in the broad areas of computer networking and multimedia systems. We develop algorithms and protocols to enhance the performance of networks, especially the Internet, and to efficiently distribute multimedia content (e.g., video and audio objects) to large-scale user communities. The Network Systems Lab is led by [http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~mhefeeda/ Dr. Mohamed Hefeeda], and is affiliated with the [http://www.cs.sfu.ca/research/groups/NML/ Network Modeling Group] at SFU.
The NSL lab is located in room SUR 4150 (Surrey campus).

We hold regular [[group meeting]] for discussion and brainstorming.

Our current research interests include multimedia networking, peer-to-peer systems, wireless sensor networks, and network security. Brief description and links to currently active projects are given below.

== '''Multimedia Networking''' ==

We are focusing on distributed streaming in dynamic environments and for heterogeneous clients. Our
goal is to analyze and understand scalable coding techniques, and to design several optimization and streaming algorithms to make the best possible use of them in real multimedia systems. This will yield better quality for users, and more efficient utilization of network and server resources. We are also designing algorithms to optimize streaming quality for wireless and mobile clients.

* '''[[Scalable Multimedia Streaming]]'''

* '''[[mobileTV|Mobile TV Networks]]'''

* '''[[wimax|Multimedia Streaming over WiMAX Networks]]'''

== '''Peer-to-Peer Systems''' ==

We are exploring the applicability of the P2P paradigm to build cost-effective content distribution systems. Problems such as sender selection, adaptive object replication, and content caching are being studied. We are also developing models to analyze the new characteristics of the P2P traffic and the impact of these characteristics on the cache replacement policies and object replication strategies.
Furthermore, we are devising analytic models to study the dynamics of the P2P system capacity and the impact of various parameters on it.

* '''[[pCDN|pCDN: Peer-assisted Content Distribution Network]]'''

== '''Online Networked Games''' ==

We are designing various algorithms to improve the performance of online games.

* '''[[Minimizing Round-Trip Time in Online Games]]'''

* '''[[Minimizing Energy Consumption for Online Games on Mobile Phones]]'''

== '''High Performance and Cloud Computing''' ==

We are exploring the opportunities of utilizing new architectures such as GPUs, multi-core processors, and distributed clusters (cloud computing) to efficiently solve research problems related to multimedia content analysis,
large-scale data analysis, and machine learning techniques.

* '''[[hpc|Approximation algorithms for Kernel Methods on Multi-core CPUs and GPUs]]'''

* '''[[videoInfringement | Video Copy Detection using Cloud Computing]]'''

* '''[[flash| Improving Performance of Data Centers using Flash Memory]]'''

----

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= '''''Concluded Projects''''' =

== '''Wireless Sensor Networks''' ==

We are developing coverage and connectivity maintenance protocols that consider probabilistic (i.e., more realistic) sensing and communication models. We are also designing protocols that provide controllable degrees of coverage (k-coverage).

* '''[[Probabilistic Coverage and Connectivity]]'''

* '''[[K-Coverage and its Application to Forest Fire Detection]]'''

== '''Network Security''' ==

We are exploring network monitoring techniques to detect and thwart intrusion and denial-of-service attacks in their early stages by observing unusual traffic patterns injected by such attacks. We are studying the security of multimedia streaming systems that employ multi-layer and fine-grain scalable video streams.

* '''[[Security of the SIP protocol]]'''

* '''[[Detecting DoS Attacks and Service Violations in QoS-enabled Networks]]'''

* '''[[Security of Scalable Multimedia Streams]]'''

== '''Online Advertising''' ==
Online advertising is a form of promotion that uses the Internet and World Wide Web for advertising a good or service to attract users. Examples of online advertising include contextual ads on search engine results pages,, banner ads, Rich Media Ads.

* '''[[Predicting ads' quality ]]'''

* '''[[Advertising in Online Videos ]]'''

== '''P2P and Multimedia Systems''' ==

* '''[[Modeling and Caching of P2P Traffic]]'''

* '''[[CanVid|CanVid: Content- and Network-aware Video Processing]]'''

== '''Others''' ==

* '''[[tethering|Tethering in Cellular Data Networks ]]'''

* '''[[esswn|Efficient and Secure Streaming of Scalable Multimedia Content over Wireless Networks]]'''

Network and Multimedia Systems Lab (NMSL)

2013-04-08T21:05:48Z

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User:WikiSysop

2009-11-25T14:45:29Z

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[[Image:MainBanner1.jpg|center|661px|Test]]
test 2

JasonTest

2009-11-09T19:20:53Z

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JasonTest

2009-11-09T18:51:42Z

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[[Image:roomba.png|frame|right|P2P Caching]]

JasonTest

2009-11-09T18:50:22Z

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[[Image:romba.png|frame|right|P2P Caching]]

File:roomba.png

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Private:mobileTV

2009-09-16T23:07:41Z

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'''Mobile TV Networks'''

Mobile TV allows users to watch their favorite TV shows and games on small hand-held devices while
traveling. It, therefore, extends the Prime Time viewing of users and provides more business opportunities
for content providers. The market for mobile TV is huge: it is expected to grow to up to 20 billion Euros
with 500 million customers by 2011 [http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/08/451&format=PDF (reference)]. In fact, mobile TV has already been deployed in parts of Europe and Asia and in pilot-testing in several locations in North and South Americas [http://www.dvb-h.org/ (official DVB-H site)]. This rapid adoption is fueled by the desire of users for multimedia content and by the technological advances in wireless mobile devices, such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), smart cellular phones, and mobile media players. Many of these devices have evolved to almost full-fledged mobile computers with high resolution displays, fast network links, large memory and storage space, and fast processors. Therefore, multimedia content can be rendered on most of these mobile devices, which further stimulates the user demands for more content and better quality.

A common issue in all mobile wireless devices is the limited energy supply since they are battery powered. Thus, minimizing the energy consumption in mobile TV networks becomes a critical problem for the success and wide adoption of such systems. Another important issue is reducing the channel switching delay. We address these two important problems. Our goal is to provide a guarantee on the maximum switching delay from a TV channel to any other channel, without scarifying the energy saving for mobile devices. In addition, we are exploring the possibility of using scalable video coding (H.264/SVC) to support heterogeneous receivers, control switching delay, and minimize energy consumption. Furthermore, the interaction between different parameters of mobile TV systems, e.g., FEC, frame refresh delay, time slicing, are being analyzed. All algorithms and schemes are being implemented and evaluated in a [http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~mhefeeda/Papers/mm08demo_abstract.pdf real mobile TV testbed] that we have developed in our lab.

== People ==

* [http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~mhefeeda/ Mohamed Hefeeda]

* [http://www.sfu.ca/~cha16/ ChengHsin Hsu (PhD student)]

* [http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~yliu1/ Yi Liu (MSc student)]

* [http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~cly/ Cong Ly (MSc student)]

== Publications ==

* C. Hsu and M. Hefeeda, [http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~mhefeeda/Papers/mmcn09.pdf Bounding Switching Delay in Mobile TV Broadcast Networks], In Proc. of ACM/SPIE Multimedia Computing and Networking Conference (MMCN'09), San Jose, CA, January 2009.

* M. Hefeeda, C. Hsu, and Y. Liu, [http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~mhefeeda/Papers/mm08demo_abstract.pdf Testbed and Experiments for Mobile TV (DVB-H) Networks], ACM Multimedia'08 Technical Demonstration, Vancouver, Canada, October 2008. [http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~mhefeeda/Papers/mm08DemoAward.pdf Best Demo Award]

* M. Hefeeda and C. Hsu, [http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~mhefeeda/Papers/innovations08.pdf Energy Optimization in Mobile TV Broadcast Networks], In Proc. of IEEE International Conference on Innovations in Information Technology (Innovations'08), Al Ain, United Arab Emirates, December, 2008.

* M. Hefeeda and C. Hsu, [http://nsl.cs.sfu.ca/papers/burst_tr.pdf On Burst Transmission Scheduling in Mobile TV Broadcast Networks], School of Computing Science, Simon Fraser University, August 2008.

* C. Hsu and M. Hefeeda, [http://nsl.cs.sfu.ca/papers/infocom09_tr.pdf Time Slicing in Mobile TV Networks with Arbitrary Channel Bit Rates], School of Computing Science, Simon Fraser University, September 2008.

== Press Coverage ==

* July 1, 2009: Our mobile TV research is also featured in the July issue of the ACM Tech News: [http://technews.acm.org/archives.cfm?fo=2009-07-jul/jul-01-2009.html#418148 see article] or [[media:acmnews09.pdf| local PDF]]

* June 26, 2009: Our mobile TV project is featured on CTV News: [http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20090625/bc_mobile_tv_090625/ see article] or [[media:ctv09.pdf | local PDF]]

* June 15, 2009: Omni-TV featured Cheng and our mobile TV project (in Mandarin): [[media:omni09.mpg | local mpeg file]]

* June 4, 2009: The mobile TV project is in World Journal News (in Mandarin): [http://van.worldjournal.com/printer_friendly/2667437# see article] or [[media:worldjournal09.pdf | local PDF]]

* May 28, 2009: The mobile TV project is in SFU News: [http://www.sfu.ca/sfunews/news/story_05290909.shtml see article] or [[media:sfunews09.pdf | local PDF]]

== Mobile TV (DVB-H) Testbed ==

We have implemented a complete end-to-end testbed for [http://www.dvb-h.org/ DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcast--Handheld)] networks. The testbed provides a realistic platform for analyzing
various aspects of these networks, including the energy saving
achieved by the time slicing mechanism, average channel switching
delay, network capacity in terms of number of TV channels that
can be broadcast, visual quality of TV channels transmitting different
types of video streams, information exchange and interactivity
between base station and receivers, among many others. To the best
of our knowledge, there exists no complete open-source testbed for DVB-H.
The details of testbeds and pilot networks created by companies are
usually not published, and the source code is not available. Thus
academic researchers designing algorithms and protocols for mobile
TV networks, including ourselves, had to resort to simulation
and/or theoretical analysis. To address this problem, we make the
details and source code of our testbed available to the research community.

The main components of our mobile TV testbed are shown in the following figure.

[[Image:MobileTV2.jpg|center|700px|Mobile TV Testbed]]

''' Base Station.''' The base station is a Linux box (Intel Quad-Core Xeon E5420 (2.5 GHz) PC running Ubuntu Linux) in which we installed the RF signal modulator: Dektec DTA-110T DVB-T/H Modulator and UHF Upconverter for PCI Bus.
This modulator implements the physical layer of the protocol stack and transmits
DVB-H standard compliant signals via an indoor antenna. The RF
output level of the modulator, however, is quite low (-29 dBm)
and can only reach up to 1-meter broadcast range with a 6 dB receiver
antenna. Using a low-power amplifier, the RF signal can be
boosted to about 0 dBm, which gives us approximately 20-meter
range in our lab environment.

IP packets of the video streams are encapsulated in MPEs and FEC-coded using
an IP Encapsulator. In the initial setup, we adopt an
[http://amuse.ftw.at/downloads/encapsulator open-source IP Encapsulator], which
implements simple time slicing techniques. We extended that IP encapsulator to
support more sophisticated and optimal time slicing schemes. Recently, we have re-designed
the base station software to be well-structured
with defined interfaces in order to facilitate implementing and comparing
different current/future algorithms, including multimedia streaming and time slicing algorithms.
This new base station design follows multi-threaded paradigm, and can fully utilize
multi-processor systems, which is common nowadays. We continue improving
the base station implementation: the latest source code can be browsed at
[https://cs-svn.cs.surrey.sfu.ca/nsl/browser/DVB-H the subversion server].

'''Receivers.''' We use the Nokia N92 and N96 device as receivers. These
devices are equipped with the receiver-side of the DVB-H protocol
and video player. The operating system on this device (Symbian)
provides several APIs, including APIs for measuring energy consumption.
While the N92 device helps in assessing the visual quality
of videos, it does not provide detailed logging functions of the
low-level signals, which are needed to evaluate the performance
of different protocols. To address this shortcoming, we added the
Divi Catch RF-T/H transport stream analyzer to the testbed. This analyzer
can be attached to a PC via a USB port. The analyzer records traffic
streams as well as provides a very detailed information on the RF
signal, the MPEs, jitter, time slicing, and so on. It also comes with
a visualization software that can run on the PC for analysis.

== Software ==

We have implemented the software of DVB-H base stations as an open-source project called ''mtv''. Unlike commercial products, mtv allows researchers to implement their ideas and algorithms on top of it. Thus researchers can evaluate the real performance of their ideas in an open-source experimentation platform that is very close to deployed networks.

* We continue improving the base station implementation. [[MobileTV Todo | Here is a list of ongoing and future tasks]].

* The latest base station code can be browsed a [https://cs-svn.cs.surrey.sfu.ca/nsl/browser/DVB-H the subversion server].

* We have collected several MPEG-2 TS stream traces. These streams are compatible with recent Nokia handsets, such as N96. (We thank Abertis Telecom for providing us some of these traces. )
*# [http://nsl.cs.sfu.ca/traces/nokia/n96.ts Nokia stream #1]
*# [http://nsl.cs.sfu.ca/traces/nokia/nokia_ts.ts Nokia stream #2]
*# [http://nsl.cs.sfu.ca/traces/nokia/dvbh-tdt.ts Nokia stream #3]

== Discussion and Ideas ==

* [[mobile_tv_shoutbox | Shoutbox]]

* [[mobile_tv_testbed_software| Testbed Software Design]]

* [[Private: mobile_tv_meeting_minutes | Meeting Minutes (login required)]]

* [[Private:mobile_streaming_ideas|Underinvestigated ideas of streaming to mobile devices (login required)]]

== Documents ==

Below is a list of notes taken when implementing the testbed.

* [[Time slicing in DVB-H | FATCAPS Howto]]: describes how to set up a base station using FATCAPS.

* [[PSI_SI_DVB-H | PSI/SI]]: describes PSI/SI tables.

* [[ESG_DVB-H | ESG]]: describes Electronic Service Guide.

* [[FLUTE_DVB-H | FLUTE/ALC]]: describes FLUTE/ALC protocol.

* [[Nokia S60 Platform battery monitor tool]]: describes a energy profiling tool.

== References and Links ==

* [http://www.dvb-h.org/ The official Mobile TV website maintained by the DVB Project Office.]

* [http://projects.celtic-initiative.org/WING-TV/ Wing-TV Project:] Docs to test and to verify in detail the DVB-H specification.

* J. Wang, M. Venkatachalam, and Y. Fang, [http://www.fang.ece.ufl.edu/mypaper/jsac07wang.pdf System Architecture and Cross-Layer Optimization of Video Broadcast over WiMAX], IEEE JSAC 25(4), pp. 712--721, MAY 2007. (Check this special issue of JSAC as well.)

* G. Gardikis, G. Xilouris, C. Skianis, [http://www.springerlink.com/content/a32p21815h46n12q/ Broadband multimedia on the move with DVB-H], Multimedia Tools and Applications, 36(1-2), January 2008. (DVB-H tutorial in inter-active mode.)

* [http://limbos.wiki.sourceforge.net/ LIMBOS LInux setup for accessing Mobile Broadcasting through Online Streaming]

User:WikiSysop

2009-08-14T22:26:22Z

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User:WikiSysop

2009-08-14T22:19:09Z

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[[Image:MobileTV2.jpg|center|661px|Mobile TV Testbed]]

User:WikiSysop

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[[Image:|center|661px|Mobile TV Testbed]]

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2009-07-14T13:49:41Z

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Testing
 
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2009-07-14T13:44:24Z

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pCDN

2008-10-08T22:43:55Z

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'''Peer-assisted Content Distribution Network'''

This project employs the peer-to-peer (P2P) computing paradigm in designing large-scale content distribution systems. The P2P paradigm provides: (i) improved scalability by aggregating resource contributions from peers (end user machines) and reducing the reliance on centralized servers, (ii) reduced cost by utilizing already-deployed resources and eliminating the need for expensive infrastructure, and (iii) rapid deployability by performing all processing at the end systems.

Major content distribution networks, such as Akamai, consider the P2P paradigm as a real threat for their content distribution business. This is because the P2P paradigm may achieve similar services with a fraction of the cost. However, there are several research challenges that need to be addressed to enable the P2P paradigm to achieve this potential. In this research, we tackle these research challenges. Our goal is to develop a fully functional and reliable P2P content distribution system, which we call pCDN. Several steps have been made towards that goal. In fact, we already have a beta version of pCDN 1.0.

pCDN will provide high-quality multimedia content, support heterogeneous clients, impose minimal load on the expensive inter-ISP links, provide on-demand as well as live streaming services, ensure data integrity, implement digital rights management, among other features. All features are based on novel algorithms developed by our group. An overview of pCDN and its features can be found in this [http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~mhefeeda/Papers/pCDN07.pdf White Paper.] The white paper also summarizes the main differences between pCDN and common P2P file-sharing systems such as BitTorrent and Gnutella.

pCDN is developed in partnership with the [http://www.cbc.ca Canadian Broadcasting Corporation] (CBC). CBC is the largest Internet content provider in Canada with millions of online users consuming a huge amount of bandwidth, which costs CBC millions of dollars each year. The objective of pCDN is to offset some of these costs while providing better streaming services to clients. pCDN 1.0 is currently in the final testing phases by CBC to be released to the public. Testing is being performed on small Internet streaming services, and the system will gradually evolve to larger-scale important services.

Funding for the pCDN project is provided by a research grant from CBC, CRD and RTI grants from [http://www.nserc.ca NSERC], and a few [http://www.mitacs.ca MITACS] Research Internships. We appreciate their support.

== People ==

* [http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~mhefeeda/ Mohamed Hefeeda] (Assistant Professor)

* François Conway, (CBC, Senior Director, Technology, Strategy and Planning)

* Bernard Jules (CBC, Senior Project Manager, Internet and New Media Technology)

* [http://www.sfu.ca/~cha16/ ChengHsin Hsu (PhD student)]

* Kianoosh Mokhtarian (MSc Student)

* Patrick Morin (CBC, Technical Support, Internet and New Media Technology)

* Patrice Charbonneau (CBC, Technical Support, Internet and New Media Technology)

* Vikas Kumar, Graduate (Research Assistant/Software Engineer, May -- July 2008) [[Private:vikas_kumar|Progress Report]]

* Nitin Chiluka (Research Assistant/Software Engineer, December 2007 -- May 2008)

* Pouya Alagheband (NSERC Undergraduate Research Awards, Summer 2007)

* Nicolas Gomez (NSERC Undergraduate Research Awards, Summer 2007)

* Osama Saleh (MSc Student, Graduated Fall 2006)

== On-going Research Problems ==

* [[Private:pCDN:Systems Issues|Systems Issues (Login Required)]]

* [[Private:pCDN:Peer Matching| ISP-Friendly Peer Matching (Login Required)]]

* [[Private:pCDN:NAT|Comprehensive NAT Traversal (Login Required)]]

* [[Private:pCDN:DRM| Digital Rights Management (Login Required)]]

== Publications ==

* C. Hsu, N. Chiluka, and M. Hefeeda, [http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~mhefeeda/Papers/sigcomm08poster_abstract.pdf ISP-Friendly Peer Matching Algorithms], ACM SIGCOMM'08 Poster, Seattle, WA, August 2008.

* Hsu and M. Hefeeda, [http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~mhefeeda/Papers/tomccap08_rd.pdf On the Accuracy and Complexity of Rate-Distortion Models for FGS-encoded Video Sequences], ACM Transactions on Multimedia Computing, Communications, and Applications, 4(2), Article 15, 22 Pages, May 2008.

* C. Hsu and M. Hefeeda, [http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~mhefeeda/Papers/tom08b.pdf Partitioning of Multiple Fine-Grained Scalable Video Sequences Concurrently Streamed to Heterogeneous Clients], IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, 10(3), pp. 457--469, April 2008.

* M. Hefeeda and C. Hsu, [http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~mhefeeda/Papers/tomccap08_fgs.pdf Rate-Distortion Optimized Streaming of Fine-Grained Scalable Video Sequences], ACM Transactions on Multimedia Computing, Communications, and Applications, 4(1), Article 2, 28 Pages, January 2008.

* C. Hsu and M. Hefeeda, [http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~mhefeeda/Papers/tom08.pdf Optimal Coding of Multi-layer and Multi-version Video Streams], IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, 10(1), pp. 121--131, January 2008.

* B. Jules and M. Hefeeda, [http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~mhefeeda/Papers/pCDN07.pdf pCDN: Peer-assisted Content Distribution Network], CBC/Radio-Canada Technology Review Magazine, Issue 4, pp. 1--14, July 2007. (Invited, also published in French).

* Y. Tu, J. Sun, M. Hefeeda, Y. Xia, S. Prabhakar, [http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~mhefeeda/Papers/tomccap05.pdf An Analytical Study of Peer-to-Peer Media Streaming Systems], ACM Transactions on Multimedia Computing, Communications, and Applications, 1(4), pp. 354--376, November 2005.

* M. Hefeeda, A. Habib, D. Xu, B. Bhargava, B. Botev, [http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~mhefeeda/Papers/mmsj05.pdf CollectCast: A Peer-to-Peer Service for Media Streaming], ACM/Springer Multimedia Systems Journal, 11(1), pp. 68--81, November 2005.

* C. Hsu and M. Hefeeda, [http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~mhefeeda/Papers/iwqos07.pdf Structuring Multi-Layer Scalable Streams to Maximize Client-Perceived Quality], In Proc. of IEEE International Workshop on Quality of Service (IWQoS'07), pp. 182--187, Chicago, IL, June 2007.

* C. Hsu and M. Hefeeda, [http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~mhefeeda/Papers/nossdav07.pdf Optimal Partitioning of Fine-Grained Scalable Video Streams], In Proc. of ACM International Workshop on Network and Operating Systems Support for Digital Audio & Video (NOSSDAV'07), pp. 63--68, Urbana-Champion, IL, June 2007.

* C. Hsu and M. Hefeeda, [http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~mhefeeda/Papers/mmcn07.pdf Optimal Bit Allocation for Fine-Grained Scalable Video Sequences in Distributed Streaming Environments], In Proc. of 14th ACM/SPIE Multimedia Computing and Networking Conference (MMCN'07), pp. 1--12, San Jose, CA, Jan 2007.

== Software ==

* [[pCDN:Release|Latest Released Version]]

* [[pCDN:Installation|Installation Guide]]

* [[pCDN:Feature|Features List]]

* [https://cs-svn.cs.surrey.sfu.ca/nsl/browser/pCDN Browse Source Code (Subver Server)]

* [[pCDN:Faq|FAQ]]: Please check the FAQ page before submitting a bug report.

* [[pCDN:Bugreport|Howto Report a Bug]]

* [[pCDN:QA|Quality Assurance]]

== Documents ==

* [[pCDN:Minutes|Meeting Minutes]]

* [[pCDN:Testplan|Software Test Plan]]

* [[pCDN:Emulator|Stress-test Emulator]]

* [[pCDN:License|Libraries Used and their Licenses]]

* [[pCDN:Logfile|Log File]]

* [[pCDN:Port|Port Assignment]]

* [[pCDN:Backlog|Scrum Backlog]]

* [[pCDN:Progress|Progress and Major Milestones]]

* An out-dated [[media:pcdn_old_design.doc|design document]]. We are revising it.

pCDN

2008-10-08T22:34:22Z

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Network and Multimedia Systems Lab (NMSL)

2008-08-06T16:34:40Z

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__NOTOC__

'''Welcome to the Network Systems Lab at SFU!'''

We are interested in the broad area of computer networking and distributed systems. We develop algorithms and protocols to enhance the performance of networks, especially the Internet, and to efficiently distribute multimedia content (e.g., video and audio objects) to large-scale user communities. The Network Systems Lab is led by [http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~mhefeeda/ Dr. Mohamed Hefeeda], and is affiliated with the [http://www.cs.sfu.ca/research/groups/NML/ Network Modeling Group] at SFU.

Our current research interests include multimedia networking, peer-to-peer systems, wireless sensor networks, and network security. Brief description and links to currently active projects are given below. ...

== '''Peer-to-Peer Systems''' ==

We are exploring the applicability of the P2P paradigm to build cost-effective content distribution systems. Problems such as sender selection, adaptive object replication, and content caching are being studied. We are also developing models to analyze the new characteristics of the P2P traffic and the impact of these characteristics on the cache replacement policies and object replication strategies.
Furthermore, we are devising analytic models to study the dynamics of the system capacity and the impact of various parameters on it. ...

* '''[[pCDN|pCDN: Peer-assisted Content Distribution Network]]'''

* '''[[Modeling and Caching of P2P Traffic]]'''

== '''Multimedia Networking''' ==

We are focusing on distributed streaming in dynamic environments and for heterogeneous clients. Our
goal is to analyze and understand scalable coding techniques, and to design several optimization and streaming algorithms to make the best possible use of them in real multimedia systems. This will yield better quality for users, and more efficient utilization of network and server resources. We are also designing algorithms to optimize streaming quality for wireless and mobile clients.

* '''[[Scalable Multimedia Streaming]]'''

* '''[[Streaming to Wireless and Mobile Devices]]'''

* '''[[CanVid|CanVid: Content- and Network-aware Video Processing]]'''

== '''Wireless Sensor Networks''' ==

We are developing coverage and connectivity maintenance protocols that consider probabilistic (i.e., more realistic) sensing and communication models. We are also designing protocols that provide controllable degrees of coverage (k-coverage).

* '''[[Probabilistic Coverage and Connectivity]]'''

* '''[[K-Coverage and its Application to Forest Fire Detection]]'''

== '''Network Security''' ==

We are exploring network monitoring techniques to detect and thwart intrusion and denial-of-service attacks in their early stages by observing unusual traffic patterns injected by such attacks. We are studying the security of multimedia streaming systems that employ multi-layer and fine-grain scalable video streams.

* '''[[Detecting DoS Attacks and Service Violations in QoS-enabled Networks]]'''

* '''[[Security of Scalable Multimedia Streams]]'''

Network and Multimedia Systems Lab (NMSL)

2008-08-06T16:34:30Z

Sry-csilop:

__NOTOC__

'''Welcome to the Network Systems Lab at SFU!'''

We are interested in the broad area of computer networking and distributed systems. We develop algorithms and protocols to enhance the performance of networks, especially the Internet, and to efficiently distribute multimedia content (e.g., video and audio objects) to large-scale user communities. The Network Systems Lab is led by [http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~mhefeeda/ Dr. Mohamed Hefeeda], and is affiliated with the [http://www.cs.sfu.ca/research/groups/NML/ Network Modeling Group] at SFU.

Our current research interests include multimedia networking, peer-to-peer systems, wireless sensor networks, and network security. Brief description and links to currently active projects are given below.

== '''Peer-to-Peer Systems''' ==

We are exploring the applicability of the P2P paradigm to build cost-effective content distribution systems. Problems such as sender selection, adaptive object replication, and content caching are being studied. We are also developing models to analyze the new characteristics of the P2P traffic and the impact of these characteristics on the cache replacement policies and object replication strategies.
Furthermore, we are devising analytic models to study the dynamics of the system capacity and the impact of various parameters on it. ...

* '''[[pCDN|pCDN: Peer-assisted Content Distribution Network]]'''

* '''[[Modeling and Caching of P2P Traffic]]'''

== '''Multimedia Networking''' ==

We are focusing on distributed streaming in dynamic environments and for heterogeneous clients. Our
goal is to analyze and understand scalable coding techniques, and to design several optimization and streaming algorithms to make the best possible use of them in real multimedia systems. This will yield better quality for users, and more efficient utilization of network and server resources. We are also designing algorithms to optimize streaming quality for wireless and mobile clients.

* '''[[Scalable Multimedia Streaming]]'''

* '''[[Streaming to Wireless and Mobile Devices]]'''

* '''[[CanVid|CanVid: Content- and Network-aware Video Processing]]'''

== '''Wireless Sensor Networks''' ==

We are developing coverage and connectivity maintenance protocols that consider probabilistic (i.e., more realistic) sensing and communication models. We are also designing protocols that provide controllable degrees of coverage (k-coverage).

* '''[[Probabilistic Coverage and Connectivity]]'''

* '''[[K-Coverage and its Application to Forest Fire Detection]]'''

== '''Network Security''' ==

We are exploring network monitoring techniques to detect and thwart intrusion and denial-of-service attacks in their early stages by observing unusual traffic patterns injected by such attacks. We are studying the security of multimedia streaming systems that employ multi-layer and fine-grain scalable video streams.

* '''[[Detecting DoS Attacks and Service Violations in QoS-enabled Networks]]'''

* '''[[Security of Scalable Multimedia Streams]]'''

pCDN:NAT

2008-02-28T01:34:17Z

Sry-csilop:

Network Address Translation (NAT) is a technique that allows multiple hosts on a private network to access the Internet using a single IP address. This usually requires overwriting the IP address and port numbers of outgoing packets in the router. A NAT device is only able of determining the destination of the incoming traffic if it belongs to a session initiated by one of the hosts inside the private network. Therefore, hosts behind a NAT cannot act as a server. This in particular causes problems for P2P applications.

NAT Traversal techniques help in some situations however no single solution exist as NAT behavior is not standardized. Some of the techniques such as STUN require a public server with global access to assist in the connection establishment phase. Other techniques take advantage of NAT configuration protocols such as UPnP.

pCDN:NAT

2008-02-28T01:30:13Z

Sry-csilop:

Network Address Translation (NAT) is a technique that allows multiple hosts on a private network to access the Internet using a single IP address. This usually requires overwriting the IP address and port numbers of outgoing packets in the router. In addition, depending on the NAT type, incoming traffic is blocked unless it belongs to a session initiated by one of the hosts inside the private network. The major drawback is that hosts behind NAT devices are not able to establish connection with one another. This in particular causes problems for P2P applications.

NAT Traversal techniques help in some situations however no single solution exist as NAT behavior is not standardized. Some of the techniques such as STUN require a public server with global access to assist in the connection establishment phase. Other techniques take advantage of NAT configuration protocols such as UPnP.

pCDN

2008-02-28T01:08:17Z

Sry-csilop:

__NOTOC__
= Peer-assisted Content Distribution Network =
We investigate the applicability of the peer-to-peer (P2P) computing paradigm in designing large-scale content distribution systems. The P2P paradigm provides: (i) improved scalability by aggregating resource contributions from peers (end user machines) and reducing the reliance on centralized servers, (ii) reduced cost by utilizing already-deployed resources and eliminating the need for expensive infrastructure, and (iii) rapid deployability by performing all processing at the end systems. The focus of the research is on real-time media streaming for asynchronous client requests distributed over large time scales.

Currently, there is a significant interest in the academic and industrial environments to employ the P2P computing paradigm to develop cost-effective content distribution systems over the Internet. Major content distribution networks, such as Akamai, consider the P2P paradigm as a real threat for their content distribution business. This is because the P2P paradigm may in the future achieve similar services with a fraction of the cost. However, there are several research challenges that need to be addressed to enable the P2P paradigm to achieve this potential. In this research, we tackle these research challenges. Our final objective is to develop a fully functional and reliable P2P content distribution system.

== Progress ==
* [[pCDN:Meeting|Progress Report and Weekly Meeting Minutes]]
* [[pCDN:Backlog|Scrum Backlog]]
* [[pCDN:Feature|Feature List]]
* [[pCDN:Testplan|Test Plan]]
* [[pCDN:Restructuring|Restructuring]]
* [[pCDN:Geo-Fencing|Geo-Fencing]]

== Software ==
* [[pCDN:Release|Release]]
* [[pCDN:Installation|Installation]]
* [[pCDN:Faq|FAQ]]: Please check the FAQ page before submitting a bug report.
* [[pCDN:Bugreport|Howto Report a Bug]]
* [[pCDN:QA|Quality Assurance]]
* [https://cs-svn.cs.surrey.sfu.ca/nsl/browser/pCDN Browse Source code]

== Documents ==
* [[pCDN:Testplan|Test Plan]]
* [[pCDN:License|License Agreement]]
* [[pCDN:Logfile|Log File]]
* [[pCDN:Port|Port Assignment]]
* [[pCDN:Emulator|Stress-test Emulator]]
* [[pCDN:NAT|NAT Support]]

== People ==
* [http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~mhefeeda/ Mohamed Hefeeda]
* Cheng-Hsin Hsu (PhD student)
* Majid Bagheri (PhD student)
* Kianoosh Mokhtarian (M.Sc. student)
* Nitin Chiluka (Research Assistant, Spring 2008)
* Pouya Alagheband (NSERC Undergraduate Research Awards, Summer 2007)
* Nicolas Gomez (NSERC Undergraduate Research Awards, Summer 2007)

pCDN

2008-02-27T07:16:53Z

Sry-csilop:

__NOTOC__
= Peer-assisted Content Distribution Network =
We investigate the applicability of the peer-to-peer (P2P) computing paradigm in designing large-scale content distribution systems. The P2P paradigm provides: (i) improved scalability by aggregating resource contributions from peers (end user machines) and reducing the reliance on centralized servers, (ii) reduced cost by utilizing already-deployed resources and eliminating the need for expensive infrastructure, and (iii) rapid deployability by performing all processing at the end systems. The focus of the research is on real-time media streaming for asynchronous client requests distributed over large time scales.

Currently, there is a significant interest in the academic and industrial environments to employ the P2P computing paradigm to develop cost-effective content distribution systems over the Internet. Major content distribution networks, such as Akamai, consider the P2P paradigm as a real threat for their content distribution business. This is because the P2P paradigm may in the future achieve similar services with a fraction of the cost. However, there are several research challenges that need to be addressed to enable the P2P paradigm to achieve this potential. In this research, we tackle these research challenges. Our final objective is to develop a fully functional and reliable P2P content distribution system.

== Progress ==
* [[pCDN:Meeting|Progress Report and Weekly Meeting Minutes]]
* [[pCDN:Backlog|Scrum Backlog]]
* [[pCDN:Feature|Feature List]]
* [[pCDN:Testplan|Test Plan]]
* [[pCDN:Restructuring|Restructuring]]
* [[pCDN:Geo-Fencing|Geo-Fencing]]

== Software ==
* [[pCDN:Release|Release]]
* [[pCDN:Installation|Installation]]
* [[pCDN:Faq|FAQ]]: Please check the FAQ page before submitting a bug report.
* [[pCDN:Bugreport|Howto Report a Bug]]
* [[pCDN:QA|Quality Assurance]]
* [https://cs-svn.cs.surrey.sfu.ca/nsl/browser/pCDN Browse Source code]

== Documents ==
* [[pCDN:Testplan|Test Plan]]
* [[pCDN:License|License Agreement]]
* [[pCDN:Logfile|Log File]]
* [[pCDN:Port|Port Assignment]]
* [[pCDN:Emulator|Stress-test Emulator]]

== People ==
* [http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~mhefeeda/ Mohamed Hefeeda]
* Cheng-Hsin Hsu (PhD student)
* Majid Bagheri (PhD student)
* Kianoosh Mokhtarian (M.Sc. student)
* Nitin Chiluka (Research Assistant, Spring 2008)
* Pouya Alagheband (NSERC Undergraduate Research Awards, Summer 2007)
* Nicolas Gomez (NSERC Undergraduate Research Awards, Summer 2007)

File:nsl.jpg

2008-02-27T07:01:36Z

Sry-csilop:

Hardware/Computing Resource

2008-02-27T06:53:22Z

Sry-csilop:

The figure below depicts the computing resources available in the Network Systems Lab.

[[Image:nsl.jpg]]
'''Brief Description and Usage:'''
* '''nsl''': Lab web and file server. Has about 1 TB of (RAID) storage.
* '''nsl-cpu''': 8-core server. We use it to run simulations and large-scale experiments.
* '''nsl-win''': Windows Terminal Server for remote access. It has most of the needed Microsoft software.
* '''nsl-cl''': 11 machines interconnected through a fast Ethernet switch. They can be configured in different topologies to test our code. They could form an isolated network for experimentation. They also can be used for general processing such as running multiple replicas of a simulation code.
* '''PlanetLab WAN Testbed''': Access to several hundred machines distributed all over the Internet. We use them for testing our systems in WAN environments.
* '''Wireless Sensor Testbed''': For implementing and testing our protocols in the wireless sensor networks research area.
* '''Workstations''': For use by students.

''These computing resources are partially funded by an NSERC RTI Grant.''

Matlab Tutorials

2008-02-27T06:52:55Z

Sry-csilop:

* [http://www.cyclismo.org/tutorial/matlab/ Matlab tutorial: sorted by topic]
* [http://www.math.mtu.edu/~msgocken/intro/intro.html A practical introduction to Matlab]
* [http://www.mathworks.com/access/helpdesk/help/techdoc/matlab.shtml Matlab documentations]
* [http://www.ee.columbia.edu/~marios/matlab/matlab_tricks.html Matlab tips and tricks]

Latex Tutorials and Templates

2008-02-27T06:52:40Z

Sry-csilop:

*[http://nsl.cs.surrey.sfu.ca/resources/IEEEtran_HOWTO.pdf HOWTO Manual for IEEE Transactions Latex Document]
*[http://kile.sourceforge.net/ Kile: Latex integrated environment, For Linux (KDE) users]
*[http://nsl.cs.surrey.sfu.ca/resources/latexManual.pdf Not-so-short Latex tutorial]
*[http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/info/symbols/comprehensive/symbols-letter.pdf The Comprehensive LaTeX Symbol List] ([http://nsl.cs.surrey.sfu.ca/resources/symbols.pdf Local Copy], downloaded in Dec 2007)]
*[http://www.toolscenter.org/front_content.php?idcat=26 TeXnicCenter: Latex integrated environment, for MS Windows users]
*[http://people.csail.mit.edu/u/j/jrennie/public_html/latex/ Latex tips and tricks by Jason Rennie]
*[http://nsl.cs.surrey.sfu.ca/resources/latexTemplate.tex Simple latex template]: use it to write progress reports and initial versions of papers. Use this [http://nsl.cs.surrey.sfu.ca/resources/sampleLiterature.bib sample bibliography] file to manage references in your document.
*[http://nsl.cs.surrey.sfu.ca/resources/algorithmTemplate.tex Simple template for writing algorithms] in papers. Here is the [http://nsl.cs.surrey.sfu.ca/resources/macros.tex macros] file used. See the Selection Algorithm (Fig 5) in [http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~mhefeeda/Papers/mmsj05.pdf this paper] for the final result of the template.]
*Some bibliography files (mostly on P2P): [http://nsl.cs.surrey.sfu.ca/resources/literature.bib literature.bib] [http://nsl.cs.surrey.sfu.ca/resources/literature2.bib literature2.bib]
*[http://nsl.cs.surrey.sfu.ca/resources/howto_math_xfig.html How to write mathematical symbols in xfig]
*[http://nsl.cs.surrey.sfu.ca/resources/latex-notes.html Notes on Matlab, LaTex, xfig, and EPS figures]

Technical Reading and Writing

2008-02-27T06:52:14Z

Sry-csilop:

* [http://nsl.cs.surrey.sfu.ca/resources/keshav07.pdf How to Read a Paper], By S. Keshav, ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communications Review, 37(3):83--84, July 2007.
* [http://irl.eecs.umich.edu/jamin/courses/eecs589/papers/checklist.html Paper reading and writing checklists]
* [http://nsl.cs.surrey.sfu.ca/resources/writing-a-paper.pdf How to write a great research paper]
* [http://www.acm.org/pubs/plagiarism%20policy.html ACM Policy and Procedures on Plagiarism] (New grad students: Read Section 1 of this document.)
* [http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/mleone/web/how-to.html Useful links on research and writing]
* William Strunk, Jr., The Elements of Style (available online at: [http://www.bartleby.com/141/ http://www.bartleby.com/141/])
* [http://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/dec/essay.dissertation.html How To Write A Dissertation], by Douglas Comer
* J. Zobel, [http://justin.sobell.net/index.htm Writing for Computer Science], 2nd edition, Springer, 2004.

pCDN:Testplan

2008-02-27T06:51:27Z

Sry-csilop:

== Client ==
# Download several new podcasts from the web servers (make sure the media/ directory contains no media files before this test).
# Download new podcasts from several pCDN senders.
# Download podcasts that were downloaded before (and still in media/ directory).
# Reduce the harddisk quota using user interface to 50 MB, and download several podcasts.
# Reduce the memory quota to 4 MB, and download several podacsts.
# Download new podcasts from several senders and unplug the Ethernet cable from one of the senders.
# Download new podcasts from several senders and unplug the Ethernet cables from all of the senders.
# Download new podcasts from several senders and unplug the Ethernet cable from the receiver.
# Manually truncate the media files in media/ directory, and download that file from the podcast client.
# Manually truncate the media files in media/ directory, and request that file from another pCDN client.
# Download several new podcasts using a pCDN client behind a NAT box. Check whether the IP/port are correctly reported at the pCDN server. Also try to use this pCDN client as the sender.
# Download several new podcasts using a pCDN client on a machine with multiple IPs. Use user-interface to select an outgoing IP. Then, change the NICs' IP addresses, and see whether the pCDN client continues work after reboots.

== Server ==
# Have a client doing podcast, then reboot the primary tracker --> continuation of podcast, at most with a short pause.
#*done
# Have a client join the network right after a tracker is rebooted --> no problem.
#*done
# Bring Tracker1 and Tracker2 down, and have a new peer join the network --> fail! (why?!!)
#*we ran 3 trackers, ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' respectively. Then we brought ''A'' down, started a client (that successfully joined), stopped ''B'' (client could still successfully download new medias) so the primariness was given to ''C'', and then we started ''B'' again. After that, we unplugged ''C'' 's cable (instead of pressing Ctrl+C on its console, so now ''B'' does not instantly understand about ''C'' 's failure). What we expect is: client must still be able to download new files (via ''B''), and ''B'' must understand that it is the primary now.
#**Fixed!
# Compare the response (in the log file) of query messages that are sent to all trackers right before and right after the backuping moment --> no difference in the two responses of the primary tracker, and a same update in responses from the rest of the trackers.
# (Tracker1 is initially the primary tracker) Have a client frequently send join messages to Tracker1 and Tracker2, then reboot Tracker1 and monitor JoinAck messages of Tracker2. Do the same thing with Tracker2 after it is selected as the primary (after Tracker1 went down) --> the primary tracker indicated in the JoinAck messages must get updated properly.
# Stop Primary server and check if the next alive one in the tracker-list takes up as primary and also connect to all the peers by sending JoinAckMsg.
#* Works, but JoinAckMsg is not received at client's side.
# Disconnect / Unplug the Primary server from the network and check if the next alive one in the tracker-list takes up as primary and also connect to all the peers by sending JoinAckMsg.
#* Works, but JoinAckMsg is not received at client's side.
# Disconnect / Unplug Primary server from network and check if peers connect to next tracker.
#* Works
# If one of the non-primary servers crashes, it is not an alarm, but check that after every Backup Interval, the backup file is being passed consistently from the primary server to the next alive one and restored correctly.
#* Works
# Server: If a server is unplugged from the network, if it becomes the server again after connecting back, check if the database operations fail. It should reconnect to the database.
#* Done

== Known Issues ==
# Client: The ''preferences'' frame silently rejects settings that are out of supported ranges. For example, max memory usage below 4 MB will be rejected without giving any warning. Due to the limitation of Java class and display space, we plan to address this in the new GUI design.
# Client: When a receiver loses its Internet connection, the pCDN client does not return a proper error code to podcast clients, such as iTunes. Instead, we wait until iTunes times out.
# Server: Server would crash (XXX need to validate this), if the RDBMS goes off-line.
# Server: if primary and secondary trackers, which are the only know ones to a client at the very beginning, are down, a new client can not join the network even though some trackers are still up.

pCDN:Restructuring

2008-02-27T06:51:02Z

Sry-csilop:

The current directory should be moved to a "obsolete" directory. The new pCDN/ subdir should be located at
https://cs-svn.cs.surrey.sfu.ca/svn/nsl/pCDN/.

Restructuring part has been completed on Feb 7, after the changes Cheng suggested.

Please "checkout" the code from the above link.

Please do not delete pCDN directory because the new one is inside this directory. You can find the old version at https://cs-svn.cs.surrey.sfu.ca/svn/nsl/obsolete/pCDN/trunk/.

== Server ==
=== Layout ===
* pCDN/server/
** build/
** lib/
*** dtl/
** src/
** inc/
** release/
*** doc/
*** database/
*** bin/
=== Tentative Tasks ===
# Move the boost library (lib files) from cpp/common/lib to server/lib
# (Only) Move the in-used boost headers from cpp/common/inc/boost to server/inc/boost
- We are not using boost anywhere in the code now. And I think its safe to remove it from the project : Nitin.
# Remove Linux/MacOS build directory, only keep Win32 project. Put it under server/build/
# Move the dtl_lib/ (source) to server/lib/dtl. Copy the complied libraries to server/lib
# From cpp/common, move in-used src and hdr files to server/src and server/inc
# Rename cpp/server_deliverable to server/release

=== Status ===
All the restructuring part on the server side has been done and is working normally, as before.

== Client ==
=== Layout ===
* pCDN/client/
** src/
** lib/
** doc/
** release/
** bin/

=== Tentative Tasks ===
# Remove the tracker code (including makefile and GUI part)
# Move all documents into doc/ (such as the multi-language support)
# Rename build/ to release/
# Move the code in script/ to src/, create an importer package for FeedConverter and XMLParser
# In the makefile of Importer and Monitor, copy the resulted jar files to pCDN/server/release/bin
# Rename src/common to src/util
# Rename package peer to core. Rename package peergui to ui

=== Status ===
All tasks are done and all the 3 features (peer, importer, monitor) are working as they were.

pCDN

2008-02-27T06:50:55Z

Sry-csilop:

__NOTOC__
= Peer-assisted Content Distribution Network =
We investigate the applicability of the peer-to-peer (P2P) computing paradigm in designing large-scale content distribution systems. The P2P paradigm provides: (i) improved scalability by aggregating resource contributions from peers (end user machines) and reducing the reliance on centralized servers, (ii) reduced cost by utilizing already-deployed resources and eliminating the need for expensive infrastructure, and (iii) rapid deployability by performing all processing at the end systems. The focus of the research is on real-time media streaming for asynchronous client requests distributed over large time scales.

Currently, there is a significant interest in the academic and industrial environments to employ the P2P computing paradigm to develop cost-effective content distribution systems over the Internet. Major content distribution networks, such as Akamai, consider the P2P paradigm as a real threat for their content distribution business. This is because the P2P paradigm may in the future achieve similar services with a fraction of the cost. However, there are several research challenges that need to be addressed to enable the P2P paradigm to achieve this potential. In this research, we tackle these research challenges. Our final objective is to develop a fully functional and reliable P2P content distribution system.

== Progress ==
* [[pCDN:Meeting|Progress Report and Weekly Meeting Minutes]]
* [[pCDN:Backlog|Scrum Backlog]]
* [[pCDN:Feature|Feature List]]
* [[pCDN:Testplan|Test Plan]]
* [[pCDN:Restructuring|Restructuring]]
* [[pCDN:Geo-Fencing|Geo-Fencing]]

== Software ==
* [[pCDN:Release|Release]]
* [[pCDN:Installation|Installation]]
* [[pCDN:Faq|FAQ]]: Please check the FAQ page before submitting a bug report.
* [[pCDN:Bugreport|Howto Report a Bug]]
* [[pCDN:QA|Quality Assurance]]
* [https://cs-svn.cs.surrey.sfu.ca/nsl/browser/pCDN/trunk Browse Source code]

== Documents ==
* [[pCDN:Testplan|Test Plan]]
* [[pCDN:License|License Agreement]]
* [[pCDN:Logfile|Log File]]
* [[pCDN:Port|Port Assignment]]
* [[pCDN:Emulator|Stress-test Emulator]]

== People ==
* [http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~mhefeeda/ Mohamed Hefeeda]
* Cheng-Hsin Hsu (PhD student)
* Majid Bagheri (PhD student)
* Kianoosh Mokhtarian (M.Sc. student)
* Nitin Chiluka (Research Assistant, Spring 2008)
* Pouya Alagheband (NSERC Undergraduate Research Awards, Summer 2007)
* Nicolas Gomez (NSERC Undergraduate Research Awards, Summer 2007)

pCDN:QA

2008-02-27T06:49:15Z

Sry-csilop:

= Quality Assurance =
We describe how NSL engineers resolve bugs reported by users, including CBC personnel. For each bug report, four NSL engineers involve in resolving the issue: ''Project Manager/Architect'', ''Support Engineer'', ''Test Engineer'', and ''Software Engineer''. Their responsibilities are described as follows.
* '''Project Manager/Architect''': He oversees the direction of product development. He monitors the bug database, as well as the workload of individual engineers. He reassigns bugs to avoid unnecessary delays. E.g., a bug assigned to an alumni should be immediately reassigned. He also discusses any design and even implementation issues with software engineers.
* '''Support Engineer''': He helps customers to fill out proper bug reports. A proper bug report should contain enough, but not too many, details. This requires a significant amount of discussions, considering most of the bug reports will be extremely vague. A vague bug report is not useful for resolving the problem, but rather is wasting our resource. Occasionally, a support engineer needs to login to customers' networks (such as CBC's Intranet), for diagnostics. In addition, he may need to set up a small testbed in NSL. However, for a larger-scale testbed, a support engineer should always work with a test engineer to accelerate the process.
* '''Test Engineer''': He reproduces bug reports based on the info given by a support engineer. He clearly documents how to reproduce bugs, which includes the proper testbed set up. The description of the testbed should be crystal clear so that a software engineer may augment the setup for a more controlled environment, such as in a debugger or on a virtual network. A test engineer performs the same test upon the bug has been fixed and checked-in by a software engineer. A test engineer should never accept a patch that is not in the version control system. A test engineer documents the test results for the patches. He closes the bug report if the patched software passes the test. Otherwise, he assigns the bug back to the software engineer.
* '''Software Engineer''': He fixes the bug based on the description given by customers, support engineers, and test engineers. He sometimes needs to set up a large testbed for non-reproducible bugs. Most of time, his test setup is smaller than what was developed by a test engineer. A software engineer discusses any structural issues/changes with his architect. A software engineer checks in his code changes, and returns the bug to the test engineer to validate the patch.

We describe the typical life-cycle of bug reports as follows. A customer creates an account in our bug database using web browsers if he/she hasn't done that before. He/she creates a bug report, and fills in as much info as possible. Our bug database automatically assigns this bug to a support engineer. This support engineer helps the customer to complete the bug report in case more info is required. The support engineer then assigns the bug to a test engineer. The test engineer develops one or more test cases for the bug, and clearly documents the test cases. If the given info is not sufficient to develop the test cases, the test engineer returns the bug back to the support engineer. Otherwise, the test engineer assigns the bug to a software engineer. The software engineer fixes the bug with the help of test cases developed by the test engineer. The software engineer may consider some test cases are invalid. He discusses and resolves this with the test engineer. Once a solution is found by the software engineer, he makes and checks-in the code changes to our version control system. The software engineer documents what has been changed in the bug database. He then reassigns the bug to the test engineer. The test engineer checks-out the latest software from the version control system. He re-runs all the test cases, and documents the results. He closes the bug if all tests are passed, otherwise, he documents his comments and returns the bug back to the software engineer.

Most of the time, the manager/architect does not directly involve in the bug resolving process. The only exception is for those bug reports that are tagged as ''new feature'' or ''functions as designed''. A bug with ''new feature'' tag should be immediately directed to the manager/architect. A bug with ''functions as designed'' tag should be sent to the manager/architect (by the test engineer) before being closed. The manager/architect validates whether this bug is indeed an invalid one, and closes or reassigns it accordingly.

pCDN:Port

2008-02-27T06:48:52Z

Sry-csilop:

* UDP port 12345: for peer-to-server communication.
* TCP port 1515: for server monitoring messages.
* TCP port 1516: for server-to-server communication.
* TCP port 8888 and 8898: for peer-to-peer communication.
* TCP port 54321 and 54331: for streaming from peer to media player (on the same workstation).
* UDP port 61874: for peer-to-peer and peer-to-server ping packets. This is to measure route hop counts and round-trip delay.
* UDP port 30000-65534: random ports for peer-to-peer and peer-to-server traceroute packets. This is to identify the packet routes among these machines. Both ping and traceroute packets are useful in optimizing the performance of pCDN networks.

pCDN:Meeting

2008-02-27T06:48:16Z

Sry-csilop:

= Nitin Chiluka =

== Meeting Feb 1 ==
* By Feb4: Have to complete pCDN as a whole (Ready for ver 1.0 release)
* Meeting at 11:30 AM: Planning on Feb 4, 5

== Completed ==
* Multi-lingual support documentation
* Includes step-by-step procedure;
* pCDN GUI cannot be supported by Netbeans IDE
* Developed Java-C++ application that can play media files using DirectShow? (Audio: mp3,mpa,wav and Video: mpg, mpeg)
* Currently working on including wmv, avi files
* Integration of DirectShow? on hold
* CBC Request: Update link in Update frame to not be hard-coded
* CBC Request: Timeout Inactive Peers
* Geo-location aware Peer-Matching algorithm

== Meeting Jan 9 ==
* By Jan 11,3pm: Possibility of playing avi,wmv,wma files.
* By Jan 16,3pm: Integration of Media player and pCDN client.

== Meeting Jan 2 ==
* By Jan 4: Integration of Media player and pCDN client.
* Redesign of pCDN client GUI in Netbeans and Documentation for Multi-lingual support.
* Restructuring of the whole code (pCDN server and client) and Documentation.
* Project Management (Development, Versioning, Interaction with CBC).
* Next Meeting is on Jan 9, 2k8: Wednesday.
* Next Meeting is on Jan 14, 2k8: Monday.
* Next Meeting is on Jan 16, 2k8: Wednesday.

PCDN

2008-02-27T06:46:56Z

Sry-csilop: PCDN moved to pCDN

#REDIRECT [[pCDN]]

pCDN

2008-02-27T06:46:56Z

Sry-csilop: PCDN moved to pCDN

__NOTOC__
= Peer-assisted Content Distribution Network =
We investigate the applicability of the peer-to-peer (P2P) computing paradigm in designing large-scale content distribution systems. The P2P paradigm provides: (i) improved scalability by aggregating resource contributions from peers (end user machines) and reducing the reliance on centralized servers, (ii) reduced cost by utilizing already-deployed resources and eliminating the need for expensive infrastructure, and (iii) rapid deployability by performing all processing at the end systems. The focus of the research is on real-time media streaming for asynchronous client requests distributed over large time scales.

Currently, there is a significant interest in the academic and industrial environments to employ the P2P computing paradigm to develop cost-effective content distribution systems over the Internet. Major content distribution networks, such as Akamai, consider the P2P paradigm as a real threat for their content distribution business. This is because the P2P paradigm may in the future achieve similar services with a fraction of the cost. However, there are several research challenges that need to be addressed to enable the P2P paradigm to achieve this potential. In this research, we tackle these research challenges. Our final objective is to develop a fully functional and reliable P2P content distribution system.

== Progress ==
* [[pCDN:Meeting|Progress Report and Weekly Meeting Minutes]]
* [[pCDN:Backlog|Scrum Backlog]]
* [[pCDN:Feature|Feature List]]
* [[pCDN:Testplan|Test Plan]]
* [[pCDN:Restructuring|Restructuring]]
** Status: Completed.
* [[pCDN:Geo-Fencing|Geo-Fencing]]

== Software ==
* [[pCDN:Release|Release]]
* [[pCDN:Installation|Installation]]
* [[pCDN:Faq|FAQ]]: Please check the FAQ page before submitting a bug report.
* [[pCDN:Bugreport|Howto Report a Bug]]
* [[pCDN:QA|Quality Assurance]]
* [https://cs-svn.cs.surrey.sfu.ca/nsl/browser/pCDN/trunk Browse Source code]

== Documents ==
* [[pCDN:Testplan|Test Plan]]
* [[pCDN:License|License Agreement]]
* [[pCDN:Logfile|Log File]]
* [[pCDN:Port|Port Assignment]]
* [[pCDN:Emulator|Stress-test Emulator]]

== People ==
* [http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~mhefeeda/ Mohamed Hefeeda]
* Cheng-Hsin Hsu (PhD student)
* Majid Bagheri (PhD student)
* Kianoosh Mokhtarian (M.Sc. student)
* Nitin Chiluka (Research Assistant, Spring 2008)
* Pouya Alagheband (NSERC Undergraduate Research Awards, Summer 2007)
* Nicolas Gomez (NSERC Undergraduate Research Awards, Summer 2007)

pCDN:Logfile

2008-02-27T06:46:32Z

Sry-csilop:

The pCDN server creates several log files:
* server.log -- contains debugging info, access logs, and route info (gathered by ping and traceroute packets)
* squid_access.log -- contains squid-like downloading logs
Upon a pCDN server is launched, a new server.log is created. We avoid name conflicts by suffixing an integer to the filenames, e.g., server.log.3. The squid_access files support log rotations: squid_access.log is the current log file, squid_access.log.1 (the most recent) through squid_access.log.6 (the least recent) are historical logs. The pCDN server, by default, keeps 7 historical log files and creates a new log file every 24-hr.

pCDN:License

2008-02-27T06:46:06Z

Sry-csilop:

= License Agreement =
Several third party libraries included with the pCDN software are free software and licensed under the terms of GNU Library/Lesser General Public License (LGPL) or a compatible licenses. These libraries are used as-is, except a few bug-fixes. You may obtain an original copy of the source code for such free software without charge except for the cost of media, shipping, and handling, upon written request to the library authors. Such software is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the license file of each library for more details.
== Used Libraries ==
{| border="1"
|+
! Name !! Project Home !! License Type !! Hyper Link
|-
! Boost
| http://www.boost.org/
| Boost
| http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt
|-
! Database Template
| http://dtemplatelib.sourceforge.net/
| Proprietary
| (Permissions are granted without fee)
|-
! UPnP
| http://www.sbbi.net/site/upnp/
| Apache
| http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.txt
|-
! Raw Socket
| http://www.savarese.org/
| Apache
| http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.txt
|-
! VServ TCP/IP
| http://www.savarese.org/
| Apache
| http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.txt
|-
! Titled Icon Border
| http://www.vrjuggler.org/
| LGPL
| http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/library.txt
|-
! NanoHTTPD
| http://elonen.iki.fi/code/
| Modified BSD
| http://elonen.iki.fi/code/nanohttpd/#license
|}

pCDN:Installation

2008-02-27T06:45:43Z

Sry-csilop:

= Procedure =
pCDN client is a light-weight software running on your computer, which services requests from podcast clients by exchanging podcast files among users. Installing pCDN client is simple. Please follow these steps:
* Download and install the latest pCDN client software.
* Install a podcast client. A list of available clients can be found [http://www.podcastingnews.com/topics/Podcast_Software.html here].
* Locate the pCDN client on your list of programs (for instance, find the software from Start Menu -> Programs on Windows) and run it. The software display a taskbar icon in the notification area. Right click on it allows you to enter Session Info windows and Preferences editor.
* Run the podcast client and use this podcast feed: http://nsl.cs.surrey.sfu.ca/tmp/cbcradio3.xml.
* Upon successful feed, you should see a list of 10 available podcasts.
* Choose one of the podcasts from the list. Your podcast client should start fetching the selected file.
* To check what podcasts are being downloaded (uploaded) to or from other peers, please double click on the taskbar icon.

= Note =
* pCDN client attempts to automatically detect your IP address. It, however, may fail if two or more network interfaces exist. Please make sure you are using only one network interface. In case more than one interface is available, please use only one by disabling others from Control-Panel -> Network connections.
* If a software-based firewall is running, please either disable it or add pCDN client to the list of allowed programs. For Windows firewall, you can add pCDN client to the list of allowed programs by going to: Control Panel ->Security Center -> Windows Firewall -> Exceptions. Make sure you tick the check box after adding pCDN client.

pCDN:Geo-Fencing

2008-02-27T06:45:16Z

Sry-csilop:

Geo-Fencing

== Users ==
There are 3 levels of privileges to an account who can use this feature.
* Normal: Statistics
* Content: Content Management (create/modify/delete groups, add/modify/delete files from the database and various groups)
* System: Create, modify and delete user accounts

== Server ==
=== Database Tables ===
* policy (GroupID, GroupName SubnetIP, SubnetMask, City, Region, Country, StartTime, EndTime)
* group (GroupID, FileID)
* users (Username, Password, Type)
** Types: Normal(1), Content(2), System(3)

== Client ==
The current monitoring client can be improved to include geo-fencing features as well.
Following Screens could be a solution to handle the problem at hand.
* Authentication (Username, Password, Monitoring_Server_IP, Monitoring_Server_Port)
* Status (Running/Stopped, Start , Stop) (Optional: This can possibly be done if the server is running as service)
* Statistics
**(FileID -> P1, P2, ...)
** Connected Peers (Irrespective of whether they have a file or not)
* Content Management (create/modify/delete groups, add/modify/delete files from the database and various groups)
* User Accounts (Create/Modify/Delete account)
* Policy (GroupID, Groupname, SubnetIP, SubnetMask, City, Region, Country, StartTime, EndTime)

== Points to consider ==
* How to resolve if there is any conflicting policy on a file or a group