StreamSocial: A P2P streaming system with social incentives

Abstract

P2P Streaming has attracted much attention recently with promises for more revenues and better load distribution. In parallel, social networking has changed how people interact using the web. One interesting use-case for next generation IPTV is Social TV. In such a system, users are able to watch some media stream and interact with each other at the same time. While deploying P2P Social TV, one inherent problem in P2P streaming systems remains, how to incite users to contribute. In this demonstration we show how social networks can be used to build new incentive mechanisms. Rather than making social relations a mere addition, we build our streaming system on top of a user's social network. This design greatly simplifies the system and requires no further entities for management. In this demonstration we present the first version of StreamSocial that, based on a plug-in based design, allows users to stream videos while performing social interactions.