[SGVLUG] Anyone want to embrace and extend AOL?

[Emerson, Tom]

> -----Original Message-----
> Behalf Of Mike Fedyk
> 
> Emerson, Tom wrote:
> > Some key concepts I noted as I skimmed the first one
> >
> >    -- uses a peer-to-peer model [to "stream" video]

> I went to an interview at a content streaming hosting 
> company, and after 
> walking out I couldn't help thinking that bittorrent should 
> be combined with streaming.

Unfortunately, as I understand how Bittorrent actually works, this wouldn't work.  the [seed] server and client(s) work together to push out the "most rare chunk", so if say 3 people tried to get the file at the same time, the first client would get chunk #1, the second #2, and the third #3; client 1 would be "directed" to seedlet's 2 & 3 for those respective "chunks", and would (very likely) pull chunk #4 from the originating seed server.  Meanwhile #2 (perhaps on a slower DSL) would be directed to the other two servers for chunks 1 & 3, but by the time it gets around to a "totally new chunk", server 3 might have pulled chunk 5 from the primary seed, so it would pull chunk 6 instead.

Now, having said that, I suppose if you could /guarantee/ that a "client" would receive packets (chunks) within the next "buffer" during the playback time of the first buffer's worth of data, you could get away with this, but it still seems to be a nightmare to implement...

There is also no guarantee of the "QOS" of the upstream channel from the "peers" [hint: how to screw with them: put a packet filter on your firewall that severely restricts the outbound packet rate for this "service"]