Request generation for a peer-based PVR

Capacity planning, as well as protocol design and storage system design for video distribution systems are dependent on an understanding of the anticipated workload. Previous studies have focused on aggregate statistics of video popularity over time, and only recently has work been done which analyzes user behaviour variability over time. We are interested in a video storage/distribution system that uses peer resources to help content providers distribute video content to nodes in a network over long periods of time. Such a system is intended to operate on local principles of utility associated with each peer. More than ever, a workload model based on long-term user behaviour is required. In particular, it is unclear how request patterns driven by local utility can be shaped to match expected large-scale aggregate request characteristics such as a Zipf-distribution for overall popularity. In this paper, we describe early work in developing a workload generator for a Peer-based PVR (Personal Video Recorder) system to demonstrate some of these challenges.