WO2009087201A1

WO2009087201A1 - System for the local management of real-time data streams

Info

Publication number: WO2009087201A1
Application number: PCT/EP2009/050187
Authority: WO
Inventors: Igmar Bornholz; Benjamin Morgenstern
Original assignee: Netventures Gmbh
Priority date: 2008-01-08
Filing date: 2009-01-08
Publication date: 2009-07-16
Also published as: DE102008003418A1

Abstract

The invention relates to a method in a data distribution system (10) for the local distribution of real-time data streams over data terminals (14, 16, 18), which are connected by means of a communication network, using a Peer-to-Peer system, which method involves the use of provision resources from the data terminals of the users for generating the real-time data streams, wherein - the real-time data streams (30) are divided in the form of data packets, - the data packets are stored in a memory of the data terminal of the user (16) in chronological correlation to the transmission; - the data packets are transmitted from the terminal of the user (16) to another user (18) upon request, - the data terminal of the other user (18) responds to receipt of the data packets by returning an acknowledgement data record (32) to the user (16) which contains information about the data provided and the identity of the data terminal of the providing user (16), - the acknowledgement data records obtained for provision instances are transmitted from the user (16) to the data distribution system (34), and - the user (16) obtains a reward from the data distribution system for the provided data in line with the information contained in the acknowledgement data records. This method provides the users of a data distribution system with an incentive to provide data transmission capacity without excluding users who do not do this.

Description

System for the decentralized management of real-time data streams

The invention relates to a method in a data distribution system for the decentralized distribution of real-time data streams, which are reproduced in interconnected via a communication network user data terminals.

In order to avoid the burden of server-based data distribution systems, it is increasingly being used to use peer-to-peer systems in which the user's own data terminals are involved in the generation of the requested data streams and thus provide data transmission resources.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a data distribution system in which an incentive is created for users of the system to provide transmission capacity on their own data terminal for use by other users in the data distribution system. This object is achieved by a method according to claim 1. Advantageous developments of the invention are the subject of the dependent claims.

In the present invention, data streams requested by a user of the data distribution system are provided by the data terminals of other users involved in the data distribution system. The data streams are transmitted in the form of separate data packets to the data device of the end user, in which data terminal the data packets to a continuously running data stream, e.g. an audio or video stream.

In the present invention, an incentive for the users to provide data transmission capacity in the data distribution system is provided by the user providing data transfer capacity on his terminal receiving an acknowledgment record as at least completion of the transmission of data packets to another user the identity of the other user, the identity of the data packet providing user as well as information about the volume of the transmitted data packets contains. The data record can also contain further data relevant to billing, eg a certain value of the transmitted data. For example, the video streaming of relatively new films, which generally also demand more, is more expensive than the streaming of some classic films, which are sometimes requested. be changed. By inserting weighting data, for example in the form of two bits, which already allow four different weight classes, the weighting of the stream can be taken into account in the billing. Additionally or alternatively, data may also be provided in the acknowledgment data record which identify the requested data stream or contain information about it, which allows a subsequent assessment of the significance, eg in the context of billing.

The acknowledgment records are stored in a memory area of the data terminal of the user of the data distribution system until the user sends these acknowledgment records to at least one receiving location, e.g. Forwards a server of the system to receive compensation according to the volume of data provided. In this way, users can be given a positive incentive to provide data transmission capacity in the data distribution system without excluding those users who do not wish to participate in data provisioning in the system. This is particularly relevant for payment systems that allow the use of the data distribution system, in particular volume-dependent, only for a fee.

In order to protect this remuneration system or incentive system for the users against misuse, data, e.g. Bit sequences (tokens) issued by the server individualized to the different users. These data or bit sequences can then be used by the users to generate acknowledgment records. These data or bit sequences are also preferably certified by the server and limited in their use to the designated subscriber. Theft of such records by other users is therefore meaningless because the system accepts the delivery of the receipt records only by the users designated in the token by the server. Furthermore, the data or bit sequences output by the server are preferably certified by a signature of the server, so that a forgery of these data or bit sequences can be excluded.

If a subscriber now wishes to receive data from another subscriber, the data is exchanged and acknowledged in a trusted transaction by a delivery of the acknowledgment data record from the received user to the data-providing user. To this end, the receiving user notes in the receipt data record the received data volume, which subsequently used for the remuneration to the providing user is, if appropriate, a valency of the transmitted data stream. The acknowledgment data record may also contain data that contain information about the quality of the data provision, such as download rate, completeness, etc., in order to guarantee a certain quality management.

Preferably, all data transmitted in connection with this billing system are encrypted, whereby preferably a common asymmetric encryption method with a public key part (public key cryptography) is used. In this system, each attendee is assigned both a public and a private key at the first login, which are signed by the system by a trusted entity attached to the system. The delivery of an acknowledgment data record is then preferably signed by the user received with the private part of his key.

The data packets can vary in size. In the system, the data streams are preferably transmitted separated at least approximately approximately equally large data packets. In particular, the data packets are exactly the same size, e.g. 156 kbytes. Volume accounting then takes place simply by determining the number of transmitted data packets, it also being possible for the value key described above to be incorporated in the acknowledgment data record as a function of the significance of the transmitted data streams, which thus not only contains data about the transmitted data volume, but also information about the identity (eg title) and / or quality of the transmitted data stream.

The remuneration to the data transmission capacity providing users can, for. This can be done, for example, by reducing the fees payable for own use of the data distribution system. On the other hand, he can also be provided with free other services or free data streams. It is also conceivable to use a repayment system in which the user is actually paid a monetary value, preferably in the context of an automated billing system using the user's account data stored by the system.

In any case, it can be ensured by a mathematical method that, even if the end user's intensive provision of data transmission capacities results in compensation, which is desirably below the savings made by the server operating in the use of the data transmission capacity of the end user are justified. In this way, not only the end user but also the data distribution system operator benefits from end-user capacity delivery, regardless of the intensity of use.

It is conceivable, for example, that the remuneration does not increase linearly with the data transmission volume provided, but that the increase in the remuneration decreases with increasing data volume until it reaches a certain predefined limit value. However, such systems are known per se and not the subject of this invention. The acknowledgment records or bit sequences exchanged by the server and end users as part of the use of the system are preferably exchanged in the form of tokens representing encrypted bit sequences signed by both the system and the participating users.

One advantage of this system is, inter alia, that heavily used data streams, such. B. in currently interesting or newly come out movies are requested by many users and are thus stored on a large number of data terminals in a cache (on cache) and thus can be provided for data transmission to other requesting users. This system thus automatically adjusts itself to the demand in the provisioning capacity. The handling of the billing data in the form of the tokens or acknowledgment data records in other memory areas of the user data terminals preferably takes place as the handling of the data streams.

The system is e.g. browser-based installed on the data terminals, e.g. About JAVA (registered trademark of Sun Microsystems) that can run in principle without browser support. The program controls the reception and provision of the data streams and the handling of the billing data, as well as the assembly and playback of the data streams via loudspeaker and / or monitor. The page layout is preferably in HTML, but can also be done in XML or any other page setup language.

For the system described, it is particularly important for the protection against fraudulent activities that the transaction of exchanging data for validation records or bit sequences or tokens is trustworthy. Be the data first and the receipt data record (in short: token) is subsequently transmitted, the sending end system proceeds in advance and has no guarantee of receiving the token as proof of his service. If, on the other hand, the token is handed over before the data is transmitted, then the receiving participant has no guarantee that the service will be provided or that the quality of the service will meet a certain minimum standard. For these reasons, exchanging data for tokens requires a trusted transaction. The following is an example of a possible implementation of such a transaction shown. First, it is required that a globally valid directory exists for each subscriber, which contains a list of all unredeemed tokens of a subscriber. This list can be kept in the simplest case of a central server, but it is also conceivable a distribution of the list to different participants of the P2P system. In this example, a third trusted system as a trustee is involved in the transaction, which manages the list (or parts of the list). As soon as a new token is generated for an end system, a unique identifier (Id) of the token is entered in this list. If an end system wishes to receive data from another subscriber, it first informs the trustee which token is intended for this transaction. Here it is checked whether the token exists in the list and has not yet been reserved. Only if the token is still free is it reserved and the sending party is sent a message that the token has been reserved for him. After the successful transaction, the token is signed by the receiving party and passed to the sending end system. Likewise, the token is deleted from the global list. Once the token has been reserved to "spend", it makes no sense for the receiving party to hand over the token to the sending party, as it can no longer use the token in another transaction, and the sender can refuse to send the data. It does not, however, benefit the system, nor does it emit false or corrupted data, and the recipient of the data may refuse to cooperate at the end of the transaction by failing to use the signed token However, this does not benefit the receiving end system because the corresponding token is already listed as being issued, so the user will be billed for the transaction, which is generally not detrimental to the receiving user as he or she is Request data block again from another subscriber and a Datenb lock, even if it has been requested several times, will only be billed once. The disadvantages mentioned are overcome by the use of a relative or reputational systems. A participant who repeatedly behaves harmful to the system is increasingly negatively rated in his reputation. These ratings are publicly available to all participants so that these values can be used to select a streaming partner.

Preferably, the bit sequences output by the system (tokens) are described by the receiving user with information about the receiver and the received data and optionally quality data relating to the data transmission and output as acknowledgment data record to the sending user. The "empty" signed token issued by the server is therefore described for use as an acknowledgment record, signed and returned to the sending user as a described token.

The invention will be described below with reference to the schematic drawing. In this

Figure 1 shows a data distribution system with Internet connected end users and a

Server of the data distribution system.

Figure 2 is a detailed representation of the data flow between memory areas of

Data terminals of two end users and the communication with the server to obtain signed bit sequences, which are used to generate acknowledgment records.

1 shows a data distribution system 10 with a server 12, and a number of user data terminals 14, 16, 18, 20, which are connected together with the server 12 via a communication network, in particular the Internet 22, with each other.

By downloading installation data from the server 12 of the data distribution system, a preferably Java®-based data distribution system is set up on the user data terminals 14 to 20. This data distribution system allows the data streams such. B. songs or videos in real time on the data terminals, ie the speakers / monitors of the computer users of the system reproduced and / or stored. For this purpose, data packets of identical size are transmitted by the other users of the system to the requesting user. The provision of the data packages by users is based on the fact that they previously reproduced the data streams themselves on their end device. ben, where the data packets of the requested data stream were cached (cached) on their computer by the installed program. The quality of such a peer-to-peer data distribution system depends on the willingness of the end user to provide data transmission capacities through their own data terminal. For a data stream can only be reproduced without gaps if the data packets arriving from other users arrive in time at the terminal in such a timely manner that the data stream for real-time reproduction can be assembled without interruption from the data packets received from other users.

In order to create an incentive for the users to provide data, a remuneration system is established, which is reproduced in detail in FIG. Figure 2 shows (excluding the Internet 22 for clarity) the connection between two computers 16, 18 forming the terminals of two users. Both computers 16, 18 have a cache 20, 22 in which data packets are cached, which in the computer 16, 18 the user to continuous data streams, eg. B. video streams are composed. Before such a data exchange between the users is possible, the server 12 transmits bit sequences 28 to a billing data storage area 24, 26 of the two computers 16, 18, which represent individualized encrypted data signed by the server 12 of the data distribution system. If the user of the computer 18 now requests a data stream, the system installed on the terminals by the program checks on which computers data packets for this data stream are cached. In the present case, the computer 18 finds data packets in the cash 20 of the computer 16, and after the user of the computer 16 has previously signaled his willingness to provide data transmission capacity, at the request of the requesting user, the data packets from the cash 20 of the computer 16 into the cash 22 of the computer 18, where the data packets are assembled by the system for complete data streams and displayed on the monitor and / or stored. After receiving the data packets, the user who has received the data packets acknowledges the receipt of the data packets and the volume of the received data packets with the delivery of an acknowledgment data record to the user of the computer 16 providing the data packets. This data exchange must take place in a trusted transaction, which Ensures that a complete data exchange takes place in both directions. One embodiment of a trusted transaction has been described above prior to the description of the drawing. The receipt record is at least formed from the bit sequences 28 received from the server 12. Upon submission of the receipt data record to the data terminal 16 of the sending user, the requesting user (automated by the system) notes the address or identity of the user from whom the data was provided. After receiving the data stream 30, the receiving user compiles the following data in an acknowledgment data record 32 signed by the server and personally issued to him, information about the data stream, sender of the transmitted stream, optional quality data of the data transmission, optional date of transmission. After this data has been transferred to the receipt record, the receiving user signs it and sends it back to the providing terminal. This process is preferably carried out automatically by the program without manual involvement of the user. These data are optionally stored together with a value for the transmitted data volume in the billing s memory 24 of the user of the data terminal 16. At certain intervals or manually by the user 16 or automated by the system, for example, by means of the server 12 in billing s memory 24 of the terminal 16 of the user located receipt records 34 transmitted to the server 12, which then the user the provided data transmission capacity according to the Compensated data volumes and valences contained in the receipt records.

The system according to the invention thus represents a fraud-proof and fair charging mode for the provision of data transmission capacity in a peer-to-peer network, in which the data streaming essentially takes place between the terminals and only to a small extent through participation of the data resources of the server of the data distribution network, whereas the server is essentially only burdened with the handling of the billing data, which results in a much lower data turnover. The incentive system according to the invention thus provides a secure, easy-to-handle peer-to-peer system which minimizes the costs for the provision of data transmission capacity required by the operator of the data distribution system.

The invention is not limited to the embodiment described above, but instead may be modified within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

claims

Method in a data distribution system (10) for the decentralized distribution of real-time data streams to data terminals (14, 16, 18, 20) connected via a communication network (22) using a peer-to-peer system, in which method provisioning resources of the data terminals the users are used to generate the real-time data streams, where

the real-time data streams (30) are subdivided in the form of data packets,

- The data packets are stored in temporal connection with the transmission to a memory (20, 22) of the user's terminal device;

the data packets are transmitted from the user's terminal to another user on request,

in response to the reception of the data packets, an acknowledgment data record (32) is returned by the data terminal of the other user to the user, which contains information about the provided data and the identity of the data terminal of the providing user,

the receipt records received for deliveries are transmitted by the user to the data distribution system; and

- The user receives from the data distribution system for the data provided according to the information contained in the receipt records remuneration.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the bit sequences (28) for forming the receipt records (32) are assigned to the users of a server (12) of the data distribution system and are certified by the latter.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, that the bit sequences (28) for forming the acknowledgment data records (32) are individualized for the user.

4. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the receipt data record is signed after the writing with data from the terminal of the receiving user.

A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein each receipt record (32) provided to the providing user upon receipt of data includes identification data of the providing user or his terminal (16, 18) restricting use of the receipt record thereon.

6. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the receipt records (32) are encrypted.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein an asymmetric encryption method is used with a public and private key.

8. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the real-time data stream is divided into data packets of at least approximately the same size and the data volume of the provided data on the number of transmitted data packets is detected.

9. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein each data stream is assigned a compensation value, which is used in addition to the transmitted data volume for the calculation of the remuneration.

10. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein in the data distribution system, in particular in the server, a list of all bit sequences and / or acknowledgment records is kept, and each bit sequence or each receipt data set, which is provided by a user for acknowledging a data reception, in the list is marked as used and thus excluded from further use.

11. Data distribution system for applying the method according to one of the preceding claims.