Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of St Andrews, May 2010.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Thesis (M.Sc.)--York University, 2004. Graduate Programme in Computer Science. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 138-145). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pMQ99280

Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Computer Science, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 67-70).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 93-103).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

xxii, 413 p. : ill. / Streaming multimedia content over the Internet is extremely popular mainly due to emerging applications such as IPTV, YouTube and e-learning. All these applications require simultaneous streaming of multimedia content from one or multiple sources to a large number of users. Such applications impose unique requirements in terms of server bandwidth and playback delay which are difficult to achieve in a scalable fashion with the traditional client-server architecture. Peer-to-peer (P2P) overlays offer a promising approach to support scalable streaming applications, that we broadly refer to as "P2P streaming". Design of a scalable P2P streaming mechanism that accommodates heterogeneity of peers' bandwidth and copes with dynamics of peer participation while ensuring in-time delivery of the multimedia content to individual peers is extremely challenging. Besides these fundamental challenges, P2P streaming applications are facing practical issues such as encouraging peers' contribution and decreasing the costly inter-ISP P2P traffic. In this dissertation, we study several aspects of live P2P streaming with the goal of improving the performance of such systems. This dissertation can be categorized into two parts as follows. ( i ) We present the design and evaluation of a mesh-based live P2P streaming mechanism, called PRIME. Further, we perform a head-to-head comparison between the two approaches on live P2P streaming, namely tree-based and mesh-based. We demonstrate the superiority of the mesh-based approach. In the quest for a systematic comparison of existing mesh-based solutions on live P2P streaming, we leverage the insights from our design in PRIME and propose an evaluation methodology. Utilizing the evaluation methodology, we compare the performance of existing mesh-based live P2P streaming solutions. ( ii ) From a more practical perspective, we tackle some of the existing practical issues in the deployment of live P2P streaming applications, namely providing incentives for participating peers to contribute their resources and designing ISP-friendly live P2P streaming protocols with the ultimate goal of reducing costly inter-ISP traffic. In the end, this dissertation reveals fundamental trade-offs in the design, comparison and meaningful evaluation of basic and practical live P2P streaming mechanisms under realistic settings. This dissertation includes my previously published and my co-authored materials. / Committee in charge: Prof. Reza Rejaie, Chair; Prof. Virginia Lo; Prof. Jun Li; Prof. David Levin; Prof. Markus Hofmann

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The advancements in virtualization technologies have provided a large spectrum of computational approaches. Dedicated computations can be run on private environments (virtual machines), created within the same computer. Through capable APIs, this functionality is leveraged for the service we wish to implement; a computer power service (CPS). We target peer-to-peer systems for this service, to exploit the potential of aggregating computing resources. The concept of a P2P network is mostly known for its expanded usage in distributed networks for sharing resources like content files or real-time data. This study adds computing power to the list of shared resources by describing a suitable service composition. Taking into account the dynamic nature of the platform, this CPS provision is achieved using a self stabilizing clustering algorithm. So, the resulting system of our research is based around a hierarchical P2P architecture and offers end-to-end consideration of resource provisioning and reliability. We named this system μCloud and characterizes it as a self-provisioning cloud service platform. It is designed, implemented and presented in this dissertation. Eventually, we assessed our work by showing that μCloud succeeds in providing user-centric services using a P2P computing unit. With this, we conclude that our system would be highly beneficial in both small and massively deployed environments. / KMBT_223 / Adobe Acrobat 9.51 Paper Capture Plug-in

The Napster case has created a frenzy of controversy and confusion. The Peer to Peer technology developed by Napster creator Shawn Fanning, has forced the courts, the legislature, corporations, and individuals to reconsider the use of the Internet. Peer to peer networks create new challenges for the application of copyright law. However, these challenges are not that different from those which copyright law has evolved to accommodate in the past. Copyright law is intended to balance the interests of the creators and the public to promote the progress of science and useful arts. The premise behind copyright protection is to ensure that people continue creating, and that the public continues to enjoy those creations, through the mechanism of rewarding the creators with a temporary monopoly over their works. This balance of interests is fundamental to the interpretation of copyright law by the United States Congress and the Courts. This thesis focuses on the application and interpretation of copyright law through a case study of the law in the United States, in particular the Napster case. Although it now appears that the Internet can be subject to some form of regulation with the aid of technological innovation to enforce the regulation, the Courts in the Napster case have misinterpreted the previous judicial consideration attributed to copyright law. In essence, the fundamental principle of the balancing of interests has been lost. We are now left with an unequal balance in favor of large media conglomerates. It can be argued that the media conglomerates have used Napster as an example of their power to control the technology of peer to peer networking as a model of distribution. Napster demonstrates that peer to peer is an effective way of sharing information with an extremely large amount of people. This has the music industry scared, resulting in their legal battle to shut down the Napster technology. The claims of copyright misuse raise awareness of the need for regulation and a reassessment of copyright application in a digital age. There is a need for regulation. However, any attempts at further application of law and regulation to the Internet concerning copyright protection should consider the intent of the constitutional founders of the United States -- copyright law is intended to protect the interests of both the artists, and the public. / Law, Peter A. Allard School of / Graduate