KR101682651B1 - Method and apparatus of providing data streaming service - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for providing a peer-to-peer (P2P) -based streaming service for efficiently performing a multimedia data streaming service, and an apparatus for providing a data streaming service, A communication unit for exchanging map information, a buffer map on the basis of information on file fragment groups and file fragments held by each of the peers, compares the buffer map information with the buffer map information of each of the peers received through the communication unit, A buffer map calculating unit for deriving the file fragment information, a data transmitting unit for receiving the file fragment set or file fragment data to the corresponding peer with reference to the file fragment information derived through the buffer map calculating unit, Determine the baud rate between peers to determine the baud rate It includes.

Description

[0001] METHOD AND APPARATUS OF PROVIDING DATA STREAMING SERVICE [0002]

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for providing a data streaming service, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for providing a peer-to-peer (P2P) -based streaming service for efficiently performing a multimedia data streaming service.

Streaming refers to a technique for real-time playback of voice or video on the Internet, which means that the transmitted data can be processed as if it were a continuous stream of water. Streaming technology is becoming more and more important with the growth of the Internet because, in general, when you play audio or video, you have to download the entire file to your hard disk, which means you have to wait until the download is complete and you have enough storage space on your hard disk. . Streaming technology, on the client side receiving the data, collects the data, processes it and sends it to the application that converts it to sound or picture like a continuous flow. When streaming technology is used, data is exchanged between the main memory of the computer and the peripheral device. When the data is temporarily stored, the buffer is used to reproduce the data. Therefore, there is no need to wait, You can see or hear without restriction. Currently, streaming technology is widely used as means of providing VDO and ADO information in broadcasting companies, newspapers, and Internet broadcasting.

However, since streaming of multimedia data is a server / client method, most of the streaming data is received from a media server of a service provider, which causes problems of server load and service security. In addition, since a large number of users can not be accommodated at the same time, there is a problem that cost investment such as building more network equipment is required to solve the problem.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a method and apparatus for adaptively adjusting the size of a file fragment in a P2P (Peer to Peer) based streaming service scheme according to a service type, a terminal status, and a network status .

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for providing streaming data to a plurality of peers through a network, the apparatus comprising: A tracker server communication unit communicating with a tracker server that receives the peer list and receiving a list of peers; A peer list management unit managing the peer list received through the tracker server communication unit, managing a connection among the peers, a priority of each peer, and buffer map information of each of the peers; A communication unit for exchanging mutual buffer map information through communication between the peers; A buffer map is generated based on information on file fragment sets and file fragments held by each of the peers, and compared with buffer map information of each of the peers received through the communication unit, thereby calculating a buffer map calculation part; A data transmission unit for transmitting / receiving a file fragment bundle or file fragment data to the corresponding peer with reference to a file fragment number derived through the buffer map calculation unit; And a inter-peer transmission rate confirmation unit for confirming a transmission rate between each of the peers.

Preferably, in the apparatus, if it is determined that the data transfer rate with the peer receiving the current file fragment bundle is slow through the peer-to-peer transmission rate confirmation unit, the connection with the corresponding peer is terminated and connection with another peer is performed A file fragment bundle or a file fragment is received.

Preferably, in the apparatus, when it is determined that the data transfer rate with the peer receiving the current file fragment bundle is slow through the inter-peer transmission rate confirmation unit, the file fragment bundle received from the corresponding peer is disassembled, And receives the data.

Preferably, in the apparatus, the buffer map information includes a Start Fragment Index, Fragment Bundle Information, a buffer map length, and a buffer map, and the buffer map includes a file fragment bundle And a piece of information indicating whether or not the pieces are not included in the file fragment bundle.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of transmitting and receiving streaming data to and from a plurality of peers through a network, the method comprising: ; Generating a TCP connection by referring to the received list of peers and transmitting index information about a starting point of a piece desired to be received by the first peer and the second peer; Receiving buffer map information from the first and second peers; Recognizing a file fragment held by itself and file fragment information not held by referring to the buffer map information; Requesting transmission of a file fragment to a first peer or a second peer having a file fragment that is not possessed by the user, through the grasp; And receiving the file fragment from the first or second peer, wherein the first peer transmits a file fragment bundle, and the second peer transmits a file fragment.

Preferably, the buffer map information includes a Start Fragment Index, Fragment Bundle Information, a buffer map length, and a buffer map, And information indicating whether or not the file fragments are included in the file fragments and the fragments not included in the file fragments are expressed by a bitmap.

Preferably, the step of grasping the file fragment information may include determining whether the file fragment bundle is retained, requesting the entire fragment bundle if the file fragment bundle does not exist, And only a file fragment that does not exist is requested.

Preferably, the method further comprises: checking the inter-peer transmission rate; And a step of, when it is determined that the data transmission rate with the first peer is slow as a result of checking the transmission rate, disassembling the file fragment bundle received from the corresponding peer and receiving data in units of file fragments.

According to the present invention, in a peer-to-peer (P2P) based streaming service scheme, a size of a file fragment is adaptively adjusted according to a service type, a terminal status, and a network situation to provide a streaming service, Effect occurs.

1 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a P2P data streaming service network according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of performing file distribution through a P2P network by classifying a file fragment transmission interval into a section requiring fast file distribution and a section requiring load and resource saving.
3 is a block diagram schematically showing an apparatus for providing a data streaming service according to an embodiment of the present invention.
4 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a P2P streaming data exchange process according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a file transfer process in the case where the corresponding peer and the speed are not smooth during the transmission of the streaming data in units of bundles of file fragments.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart sequentially illustrating operations of a peer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to like or similar elements throughout the several views, and redundant description thereof will be omitted. In the following description, well-known functions or constructions are not described in detail since they would obscure the invention in unnecessary detail. It is to be noted that the accompanying drawings are only for the purpose of facilitating understanding of the present invention, and should not be construed as limiting the scope of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In order to solve the problem of the server / client method during the streaming of the multimedia data described in the background art, a P2P (Peer to Peer) multimedia streaming service utilizing a storage space and a network of a user computer is provided.

The P2P method divides a file into pieces of a certain size and divides each piece from several computers at the same time to improve the overall performance. There are a method of realizing an inter-personal connection with the help of a server to some extent, (IP address), etc., and directly connect without a server.

P2P-based streaming service can be divided into two types.

One is a method of constructing a kind of virtual tree to receive a multimedia data stream from the tree and the other is a mesh type network to receive a piece of a file from another peer (client) without a parent-child concept Method.

However, these schemes do not actively cope with the change of the situation because the size of the pieces received from the peers only operate by the initially set values, and therefore they are always the same size regardless of the service situation or the network situation. For example, if you want to retrieve a specific file fragment from a node, but the network situation with the peer is slow and the fragment size is large, it takes a lot of time to receive the fragment. This is due to the nature of the streaming service, which serves as a factor of poor quality of service. If the size of the fragment is made small, the burden due to interworking with many peers occurs, and the size of the buffer map to be exchanged increases.

Here, a buffer map is a bitmap representing a piece of a relative peer (usually 1 if there is one, and 0 if there is no), and the P2P client sends a schedule buffer section It is possible to transmit and receive corresponding data simultaneously with other peers.

The present invention proposes an adaptive fragment size adjustment method to improve overall performance and service stability in providing P2P-based data streaming service.

1 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a P2P data streaming service network according to an embodiment of the present invention.

1, P denotes a peer, a client or a node, and is hereinafter referred to as a peer.

Due to the nature of the streaming service, the rate of new streaming is limited, so that the probability that other peers have new peers will be relatively low compared to the previous peers, To other peers. Therefore, it is necessary to minimize the file fragment size of newly generated streaming data for quick exchange of newly generated streaming data.

As shown, P0 can receive file fragments from a plurality of peers (P1, P2, P3, ...) through a P2P network and simultaneously share file fragments held by the P2P network.

At this time, in case of streaming data already distributed to the peers, since many peers have the corresponding data, the fragments can be bundled and exchanged into one bundle (Fragment Bundle). This makes it possible to allocate more resources to the exchange of real-time data by efficiently using TCP connection resources.

In the process of exchanging file fragments or file fragment bundles, information of fragments included in a file fragment bundle (FB) must match with other peers. Therefore, when a fragment having a specific modular value from a start index .

However, as described above, when the size of the fragment is made small, load due to interworking with many peers occurs, and the size of the buffer map to be exchanged is increased. Therefore, It is possible to classify the transmission period of the file fragment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of performing file distribution through a P2P network by classifying a file fragment transmission interval into a section requiring fast file distribution and a section requiring load and resource saving.

As shown in the figure, files that are distributed among peers that are required to be distributed quickly can be preferentially distributed from a plurality of peers using a minimized file fragment rather than a file fragment bundle, It is possible to reduce the load and conserve resources by transmitting and receiving in FB units through a bundle of file fragments. At this time, the information of the pieces included in the file fragment bundle (FB) must match the other peers. Thus, as described above, bundling the bundles from a point having a specific modular value based on the start index desirable.

3 is a block diagram schematically showing an apparatus for providing a data streaming service according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The apparatus 100 of the present invention includes a tracker server communication unit 101, a peer list management unit 103, a peer communication unit 105, a buffer map calculation unit 107, a data and buffer management unit 109, (111) and a inter-peer transmission rate confirmation unit (113).

The tracker server communication unit 101 communicates with a tracker server that maintains a list of participating peers in a specific overlay network to receive a list of peers.

The peer list management unit 103 manages the list of peers received from the tracker server to maintain the connectivity, rank, and buffer map information of each peer.

The inter-peer communication unit 105 is a section to which communication protocols such as exchanging buffer map information with each other through peer-to-peer communication and generating and releasing a buffer map group are applied.

The buffer map calculator 107 generates a buffer map based on the information on the pieces of data and pieces held by the peer, and compares the generated buffer map with the buffer map information received from other peers, thereby deriving a necessary piece number .

The data and buffer management unit 109 takes charge of storage / retrieval of actual data.

The data transmission unit 111 performs transmission and reception of fragment data.

The inter-peer transmission rate confirmation unit 113 periodically checks the transmission rate between each of the peers and informs the other functional units of the transmission rate.

4 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a P2P streaming data exchange process according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in the figure, P0 creates a TCP connection to P1 and sends index information about a starting point of a desired piece to the P1 (S401).

P1 receives TCP connection creation and index information of P0 and transmits its buffer map information to P0 (S403). The buffer map information includes a start fragment index, a fragment bundle info, a buffer map length, and a buffer map, as shown in FIG.

The piece bundle information in the buffer map information includes the number of pieces included in the bundle and the piece bundle number. In addition, the buffer map length includes the number of pieces of pieces and the number of pieces of pieces not included in the pieces of pieces.

On the other hand, the buffer map can be expressed as bit map information 1 if the fragment map is a buffer map for pieces not included in the fragment map and the fragment map, and bit map information 0 if not.

P0 performs steps S401 and S403 for other peers P2 and P3 to receive TCP connection creation and buffer map information for file fragment reception.

If we look at the buffer map of each of the peers, P1 has a value of "111000111", P2 has a value of "111100000", and P3 has a value of "111100111". At this time, the first three digits represent the holding information for the sculpture bundle, and the remaining digits contain the holding information for the sculptures that are not included in the sculpture bundle. The buffer map values may vary according to the buffer state of each of the peers, and differ depending on the value described in the buffer map information field.

P0, which receives the buffer map information from each of the peers, internally decouples the bundle information internally and grasps the piece information of the actual self and the piece information that is not possessed (S405).

If they do not have the fragment bundle as a result of the determination, the delivery of the bundle is requested (S407).

If the user has a part of the bundle, the user may request only a piece not included (S409).

As shown in the figure, P0 receives the file fragment F1 from P3 (S411), receives the file fragment bundle FB # 1 from P2 (S413), and receives the file fragment bundle FB # 0 from P1 (S415).

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a file transfer process in the case where the corresponding peer and the speed are not smooth during the transmission of the streaming data in units of bundles of file fragments.

As described above with reference to FIG. 4, P0 receives TCP connection creation and buffer map information for file fragment reception from P1 and P2.

At this time, if it is determined that the transfer speed is low during reception of the FB # 0, it is assumed that the file fragment bundle FB # 0 is received from P 1 as shown in FIG. ) To P1 and requests file transfer in units of fragments.

At the same time, the remaining pieces of the file fragment bundle can be received through different peers, so adaptive file fragment transmission according to the situation is possible.

In addition, although not shown, if the transmission speed is low during reception in units of bundles of file fragments, the connection with the corresponding peer may be terminated and connected to another peer to receive the bundle of fragments of the file.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart sequentially illustrating operations of a peer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

First, the address list of the peer is received (S601).

Upon receipt of all N peer address lists, buffer map information of each of the peers is received in connection with each of the peers (S603).

The buffer map information of each of the peers is received and it is determined whether a file fragment necessary for the buffer map of the real-time section exists (S605).

If the file fragment exists, the file fragment transmission request is sent to the peer having the fragment (S607), and the file fragment is received from the corresponding peer (S609).

If the corresponding file fragment does not exist, it is determined whether the entire file fragment bundle FB should be received (S611).

If it is determined that the entire fragment bundle should be received, the whole bundle bundle is requested (S613), and the file is received by one piece size in the whole bundle bundle (S615). Then, it is determined whether or not a satisfactory level of performance is provided (S617). Otherwise, a piece bundle release and a next fragment are requested (S619), the next piece is received (S621), and the process returns to the step S605.

If it is judged that a satisfactory level of performance is provided (S617), in that case, the file is received by the next one piece size in the whole fragment bundle (S615), and the whole fragment bundle reception is continued.

If it is not necessary to receive the entire fragment bundle in step S611, only a necessary fragment is requested (S625). After receiving the fragment (S627), the flow returns to step S605 to receive all the fragments Repeat the steps.

In addition, each peer creates a fragment bundle preferentially for old data when the number of internally received data exceeds a certain number in order to provide pieces and pieces of fragments received to other peers. That is, it creates a bundle in the order of old pieces, and the latest data retains the shape of the piece. In addition, even if another peer directly requests a fragment included in the fragment bundle, it should be able to handle the request normally.

As described above, according to the present invention, since a file fragment is distributed by dividing a real-time file fragment transmission interval requiring fast distribution and a file fragment transmission interval not requiring fast distribution, efficient allocation and resource allocation of terminal resources and network resources Thereby providing a more stable level of service. Also, since the size of the fragment can be adjusted even when the service is in progress, it is possible to operate reflecting the characteristics of the network environment and the peer network.

Also, from the viewpoint of content providers who generate contents, if data streaming is delivered only to a P2P engine (or a P2P agent or a P2P network) without specifying a separate fragment size or the like, As the work progresses, the convenience of the user can be further improved.

The method according to the present invention described so far can be implemented in software, hardware, or a combination thereof. For example, a method in accordance with the present invention may be stored in a storage medium (e.g., mobile terminal internal memory, flash memory, hard disk, etc.) ≪ / RTI > in a software program that can be executed by a computer.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the scope of the present invention . Accordingly, the true scope of the present invention should be determined by the technical idea of the appended claims.

Claims (10)

1. A data streaming service providing apparatus for transmitting and receiving streaming data to and from a plurality of peers through a network,
A communication unit for exchanging mutual buffer map information through communication between the participating peers in the overlay network;
A buffer for generating a buffer map on the basis of information on file fragments and file fragments held by each of the peers and comparing the information with buffer map information of each of the peers received through the communication unit to derive file fragment information A map calculation unit;
A data transfer unit for receiving a file fragment group or file fragment data to the corresponding peer by referring to the file fragment information derived through the buffer map calculation unit; And
A peer-to-peer transmission rate confirmation unit for confirming a transmission rate between each of the peers while receiving the data,
The data streaming service providing apparatus comprising: The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the data transfer unit comprises:
When it is determined that the data transfer rate with the peer that receives the current file fragment set confirmed through the inter-peer transmission rate confirmation unit is slow, the file fragment set received from the corresponding peer is disassembled and the data is received in units of file fragments To the data streaming service providing apparatus. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the data transfer unit comprises:
When it is determined that the data transfer rate with the peer receiving the current file fragment bundle is slow through the inter-peer transmission rate confirmation unit, the connection with the corresponding peer is terminated and the file fragment bundle or file fragment data is received from another peer To the data streaming service providing apparatus. The method according to claim 1,
The buffer map information includes:
A start fragment index, a fragment fragment information, a buffer map length, and a buffer map,
The buffer map includes:
Wherein the bit stream information is bit information indicative of whether or not to hold file fragments and file fragments not included in the file fragment bundle. The method according to claim 1,
A tracker server communication unit communicating with a tracker server that maintains a list of participating peers in the overlay network to receive a list of peers; And
Further comprising a peer list management unit managing the peer list received through the tracker server communication unit and managing connection between each of the peers, priority of each peer, and buffer map information of each of the peers. . A method for providing a data streaming service in a data streaming service apparatus that transmits and receives streaming data to and from a plurality of peers through a network,
Receiving buffer map information from participating peers in an overlay network;
Recognizing a file fragment held by itself and file fragment information not held by referring to the buffer map information;
Requesting a peer having a file fragment that it does not hold to transfer a file fragment bundle or file fragment data;
Receiving a file fragment set or file fragment data from the corresponding peer; And
Checking the transmission rate of data between each of the peers while receiving the data;
The method of claim 1, The method of claim 6,
Wherein the requesting step comprises:
Requesting the entire file fragment bundle to the corresponding peer if the file fragment bundle does not exist, and requesting a file fragment that is not held if the file fragment bundle has a part of the file fragment bundle. The method of claim 6,
If it is determined that the data transfer rate with the corresponding peer is slow as a result of checking the transmission rate of each inter-peer data, disassembling the file fragment bundle received from the corresponding peer and receiving data in units of file fragments The data streaming service providing method comprising: The method of claim 6,
If it is determined that the data transmission rate with the corresponding peer is slow as a result of checking the transmission rate of each inter-peer data, terminating the connection with the corresponding peer and receiving the file fragment data or the fragment data from another peer The method of claim 1, further comprising: The method of claim 6,
Prior to the step of receiving the buffer map information,
Receiving a list of participating peers in the overlay network from a tracker server;
Generating a TCP connection with at least one peer by referring to the list of received peers; And
And transmitting index information about a starting point of the file fragment to a TCP-connected peer.

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