Protected seamless content delivery in P2P wireless and wired networks - seamless content delivery in the future mobile internet

Delivering protected seamless content services over heterogeneous networks should be solidly sustained on top of architectures that can offer support for guaranteed quality delivery according to network or consumer requirements. The delivery of personalized, scalable, seamless, and trusted multimedia content delivery, while adequately protecting the content, is a key factor to provide seamless content services to the final user and provide a framework for user participation. This article describes novel forms of delivering seamless content services over P2P networks using multilayered/multiviewed content coding techniques, such as SVC/MVC, multisource/ multinetwork streaming, and adaptation, with special focus on enabling content protection and lightweight asset management for a secure and privacy keeping content delivery. The implementation has been validated in the framework of the European Project SEA (IST-214063).     

Multimedia Service Discrimination Based on Fair Resource Allocation Using Bargaining Solutions

We deal with a resource allocation problem for multimedia service discrimination in wireless networks. We assume that a service provider allocates network resources to users who can choose and access one of the discriminated services. To express the rational service selection of users, the utility function of users is devised to reflect both service quality and cost. Regarding the utility function of a service provider, total profit and efficiency of resource usage have been considered. The proposed service discrimination framework is composed of two game models. An outer model is a repeated Stackelberg game between a service provider and a user group, while an inner model is a service selection game among users, which is solved by adopting the Kalai‐Smorodinsky bargaining solution. Through simulation experiments, we compare the proposed framework with existing resource allocation methods according to user cost sensitivity. The proposed framework performed better than existing frameworks in terms of total profit and fairness.     

Content and Service Protection for the Ubiquitous TV Based on Network Convergence

Today, the ubiquitous multimedia services are becoming more and more popular. However, the secure solutions that confirm the content and service security in these services are still open issues because of various network convergences and device interconnections. This paper investigates an ubiquitous multimedia service architecture and proposes a secure solution for it. In this service architecture, the multimedia content is encoded with scalable video coding and broadcasted via digital video broadcasting for handheld terminals (DVB-H) to mobile terminals, the access right is transmitted by global system for mobile (GSM/GPRS) channel, and the media content and access right can also be transferred from mobile terminals to home TV through WiFi based Wireless Local Area Network. The proposed secure solution supports three kinds of business models by using various content encryption modes and secure transmission protocols. The solution’s security is evaluated and discussed. Since few work has been done to solve this problem, the work proposed in this paper is expected to attract more researchers. Additionally, the solution is also potential for other ubiquitous services.     

A Case for Peering of Content Delivery Networks

Service providers often geographically distribute their Web servers' facilities to improve performance, reliability, and scalability. Content delivery networks, which first evolved in 1998, replicate content over several mirrored Web servers, strategically placed at various locations to deal with flash crowds and to enhance response time. A CDN improves network performance by maximizing bandwidth, improving accessibility, and maintaining correctness through content replication. Unfortunately, although many commercial CDN providers exist, they don't cooperate in delivering content to end users in a scalable manner. In addition, content providers typically subscribe to one CDN provider and thus can't use multiple CDNs at the same time. Such a closed, noncooperative model results in "islands" of CDNs. We present a model for an open, scalable, and service-oriented architecture (SOA)-based system. This system helps to create open content and service delivery networks (CSDNs) that scale well and can share resources with other CSDNs through cooperation and coordination, thus overcoming the island CDN problem     

Mobile communications

The principal problem faced by networks with mobile users is how to ensure that the service provider functions keep pace with the continually changing network state resulting from user mobility, without consuming large amounts of network resources in the process. Regardless of whether the users are mobile or stationary, all telecommunications networks must perform basic service provider functions such as controlling access to services, locating users, routing traffic, and accounting and billing for service use. However, in the presence of mobile users, all of these functions must be performed much more often and much more rapidly. Developing low-overhead high-performance service provider solutions has been and will continue to be a key area of research in mobile communications. This special issue on mobile communications comprises five articles, each of which covers a different aspect of mobile communications     

Reducing Channel Capacity for Scalable Video Coding in a Distributed Network

In recent years, the development of multimedia devices has meant that a wider multimedia streaming service can be supported, and there are now many ways in which TV channels can communicate with different terminals. Generally, scalable video streaming is known to provide more efficient channel capacity than simulcast video streaming. Simulcast video streaming requires a large network bandwidth for all resolutions, but scalable video streaming needs only one flow for all resolutions. In previous research, scalable video streaming has been compared with simulcast video streaming for network channel capacity, in two user simulation environments. The simulation results show that the channel capacity of SVC is 16% to 20% smaller than AVC, but scalable video streaming is not efficient because of the limit of the present network framework. In this paper, we propose a new network framework with an SVC extractor. The proposed network framework shows a channel capacity 50% (maximum) lower than that found in previous research studies.     

Bitstream-Oriented Protection for the H.264/Scalable Video Coding (SVC)

The newly standardized H.264/SVC enable multimedia suppliers to provide video bitstream with temporal, spatial and quality scalabilities to meet various needs of end users. Its bitstream scalability characteristic is also especially suitable for multimedia applications under merged heterogeneous networks with different network protocols, capacities and throughputs. Although the network environment, to some extent, provides security protection against the illegal users, it is not enough to protect against the authorized users from digesting contents beyond its authorization. Hence the issue of content protection for the H.264/SVC has aroused researchers’ interests in recent years. In this paper, we present an efficient bitstream-oriented protection scheme for the H.264/SVC in a compression friendly and format compliant manner. The encryption is implemented on the Network Abstraction Layer (NAL) unit level. To improve the computational efficiency as well as to provide sufficient security, selective cryptographic algorithms with different computation cost are employed for different content level of SVC according to its significance. The I slice NAL units from the base layer of SVC bitstream are encrypted with the symmetric AES algorithm in Cipher Block Chaining mode. And the other NAL units are protected by simplified XOR cipher. Furthermore, a robust key management (key generation and distribution) mechanism is also discussed in this paper. The security analysis and simulation results further verify that the proposed methods can effectively protect the H.264/SVC bitstream at low computational cost.     

Securing multimedia services over satellite ATM networks

In recent years there has been increasing interest in interconnecting satellite and ATM networks, because both share common characteristics of the ability to provide bandwidth-on-demand and flexibility of integrating voice, video and data services. There are several new satellite constellation proposals that support multimedia service and transport ATM traffic. For a successful implementation of such systems it is essential to address the security requirements of users, satellite ATM network operators and multimedia service providers. In order to minimize delay and the cost of implementing security systems for satellite ATM networks, the network operator role (in security services) can be limited to the mutual authentication with satellite users during call set-up periods. In this paper a mutual authentication protocol between the user and the satellite network is presented using digital signature and public key systems. Also, another mutual authentication protocol between the user and the service provider is presented to provide end-to-end authentication and negotiation of security options such as selecting a secret key system and the key length. Finally, a detailed hardware implementation of ATM cell payload encryption is presented using the DES/TripleDES secret key system. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于Agent的内网安全系统研究

针对目前分散式安全服务的种种弊端,通过将多Agent系统的多种特性引入网络安全系统,提出了一种基于网络拓扑结构感应能力以及行为自主性的多Agent融合方法的网络安全系统模型.以身份认证、访问控制、漏洞检测、安全审计等网络安全业务设计和实现了多种类型Agent,使网络安全系统提高了适应性能力等特征.通过自保护检测服务,确保Agent的安全通信及平台的顺利实施.该系统能有效地实施上述安全任务,提高网络安全;并能充分利用现有设备,实施廉价,可扩展性好.     

Component-based charging in a next-generation multimedia network

In classical networks, charging and billing are important tools for customer care to fight competition and to assure the operator's revenue. If charging is to remain a prime competitive tool in next-generation networks, it must be functionally intelligent and flexible, and able to optimize operator and service provider revenues while providing a fair policy toward the end users. Multimedia sessions can be considered as being composed of a number of call components, each of which might consist of different bearer and service objects. The NGN multimedia network structure and its business model define four players involved in charging: access provider, connection provider, telecommunication service provider, and value-added service provider. Often charging components must be correlated to create a clear postpaid bill and ensure correct treatment of prepaid accounts, as well as settlement between the providers involved.     

An IP-based QoS architecture for 4G operator scenarios

This article describes a global QoS architecture for multimedia traffic in mobile heterogeneous environments. This architecture supports both multiple access networks and multiple service provider scenarios. The architecture is able to provide QoS per user and per service, implementing the notion of a user profile associated network management in the case of heterogeneous and mobile network access is presented based on cooperative association between QoS brokers and authentication, authorization, accounting, and charging systems. The overall exchange of messages is exemplified for the case of a field test with specific optimizations for voice traffic.     

A look at the video dial-tone network

As organisations with information to sell implement an array of multimedia services for the home, others, too, are hard at work. Telephone companies, as well as cable operators, are busy developing broadband intelligent networks to underpin those broadcast and interactive offerings. The phone companies define their network as a common-carrier transport service, in that it grants equal access to all information providers, including themselves, and enables consumers to "dial up" video or multimedia applications offered by third parties. This kind of service has become known as a video dial-tone network. The user first gets a menu from the network provider. He or she then picks an information provider, which sends its own interactive menu of services to the customer     

Efficiency and Braess' Paradox under pricing in general networks

We study the flow control and routing decisions of self-interested users in a general congested network where a single profit-maximizing service provider sets prices for different paths in the network. We define an equilibrium of the user choices. We then define the monopoly equilibrium (ME) as the equilibrium prices set by the service provider and the corresponding user equilibrium. We analyze the networks containing different types of user utilities: elastic or inelastic. For a network containing inelastic user utilities, we show the flow allocations at the ME and the social optimum are the same. For a network containing elastic user utilities, we explicitly characterize the ME and study its performance relative to the user equilibrium at 0 prices and the social optimum that would result from centrally maximizing the aggregate system utility. We also define Braess' Paradox for a network involving pricing and show that Braess' Paradox does not occur under monopoly prices.     

Mobility Testbed for 3GPP2-Based Multimedia Domain Networks

Wireless service providers strive to preserve the quality of service and user experience for mobile users. Several standards bodies are defining architectures that can be used as a platform to provide secure and seamless services to these mobile users. These architectures aim to provide several required functions such as signaling, configuration, security association, encryption, and billing. However, the placement of several functional components and their interaction at several layers contributes to the operational complexity and thus affects the optimal results. Testbed realization of any standardized architecture can help investigate the underlying networking issues. In this article, we describe a mobility test bed implementation based on one of the architecture alternatives of 3GPP2, where the outbound signaling servers are distributed around the edges of the network. We experiment with three different hand-off techniques and analyze the associated experimental results. Analysis of these experimental results and experiences obtained from the testbed implementation can be helpful to any service provider that plans to deploy a version of the MMD (multimedia domain) architecture with distributed signaling servers.     

Secure and privacy-preserving DRM scheme using homomorphic encryption in cloud computing

Cloud computing provides a convenient way of content trading and sharing. In this paper, we propose a secure and privacy-preserving digital rights management （DRM） scheme using homomorphic encryption in cloud computing. We present an efficient digital rights management framework in cloud computing, which allows content provider to outsource encrypted contents to centralized content server and allows user to consume contents with the license issued by license server. Further, we provide a secure content key distribution scheme based on additive homomorphic probabilistic public key encryption and proxy re-encryption. The provided scheme prevents malicious employees of license server from issuing the license to unauthorized user. In addition, we achieve privacy preserving by allowing users to stay anonymous towards the key server and service provider. The analysis and comparison results indicate that the proposed scheme has high efficiency and security.     

Content Protective Multi‐Agent Platform for MsMu Service and Pattern‐Based Content Management

Recent research on mobile Internet protocol television and digital right management (DRM) interconnections has focused on multimedia technologies designed to enhance content scalability and adaptive content distribution. However, due to the architectural and scalable limitations, recent systems are not flexible and securable with respect to their adaptive content distribution and protective policy management. Therefore, we propose a content protective multi‐agent platform that provides secure multimedia services, correlation management, pattern‐based management, and multisource multi‐use (MsMu)‐based services. Our architecture, supported by DRM, lets us create a rich set of MsMu‐based content protection and seamless multimedia services through the extension of one source multi‐use (OsMu)‐based content services. We have verified our platform, which provides scalable and securable services with a 17% lower service response time by using a testbed.     

A lightweight convergent personal mobile service delivery approach based on phone book

Mobile phone users are demanding an efficient convergent communication approach for efficient communication and information sharing with their real life social circles. Unfortunately, the existing telecom services and the popular Internet services are not organically integrated to provide convenient convergent services. To overcome this issue, one of the promising convergent communication services considered by telecom carriers is RCS (Rich Communication Suite). However, existing issues, such as insufficient interoperability among different operators, shortage of terminals and heavy dependence on large‐scale IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) network deployment, mean that it will take time to implement RCS across worldwide networks and for it to become a service equally universal as voice and short message. Instead of a heavyweight RCS solution, in this paper, we propose a lightweight, quick deployment mobile phone book application system based on cloud computing without a fully deployed IP multimedia subsystem infrastructure, which seamlessly integrates traditional telecommunication services, instant messaging services, social networking services and automatic contact information management. Based on this, ‘Telco‐OTT’ service provision approach, telecom carriers can allow their subscribers to enjoy conveniently the rich convergent personal service experience quickly without a large initial investment. Thus, it is a low‐risk opportunity for telecom carriers to meet subscriber demand for advanced user‐centric convergent service features. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

QoE in video streaming over wireless networks: perspectives and research challenges

The deployment of 3G/LTE networks and advancements in smart mobile devices had led to high demand for multimedia streaming over wireless network. The rapid increasing demand for multimedia content poses challenges for all parties in a multimedia streaming system, namely, content providers, wireless network service providers, and smart device makers. Content providers and mobile network service providers are both striving to improve their streaming services while utilizing advancing technologies. Smart device makers endeavor to improve processing power and displays for better viewing experience. Ultimately, the common goal shared by content providers, network service providers, and smart device manufactures is to improve the QoE for users. QoE is both an objective and a subjective metric measuring the streaming quality experience by end users. It may be measured by streaming bitrate, playback smoothness, video quality metrics like Peak to Signal Noise Ratio, and other user satisfaction factors. There have been efforts made to improve the streaming experiences in all these aspects. In this paper, we conducted a survey on existing literatures on QoE of video streaming to gain a deeper and more complete understanding of QoE quality metrics. The goal is to inspire new research directions in defining better QoE and improving QoE in existing and new streaming services such as adaptive streaming and 3D video streaming.     

云计算环境中支持隐私保护的数字版权保护方案简

针对云计算环境中数字内容安全和用户隐私保护的需求,提出了一种云计算环境中支持隐私保护的数字版权保护方案。设计了云计算环境中数字内容版权全生命周期保护和用户隐私保护的框架,包括系统初始化、内容加密、许可授权和内容解密4个主要协议;采用基于属性基加密和加法同态加密算法的内容加密密钥保护和分发机制,保证内容加密密钥的安全性;允许用户匿名向云服务提供商订购内容和申请授权,保护用户的隐私,并且防止云服务提供商、授权服务器和密钥服务器等收集用户使用习惯等敏感信息。与现有的云计算环境中数字版权保护方案相比,该方案在保护内容安全和用户隐私的同时,支持灵活的访问控制,并且支持在线和超级分发应用模式,在云计算环境中具有较好的实用性。     

An econometric model for resource management in competitive wireless data networks

This article investigates the role and importance of the economic aspects that are vital to the success of wireless services deployment and provider selection by users in a competitive environment. We show how some of the econometric measures can meaningfully capture the user decisions/actions (e.g., churning) that can potentially be utilized by the providers in managing radio resources (e.g., bandwidth) in wireless data networks. In particular, by modeling the interaction between a service provider and its customers (or users) as a non-cooperative game, we propose a novel cross-layer resource management framework for integrated admission and rate control in CDMA networks. Analytical and simulation results demonstrate how the proposed framework can help minimize customer churning and maximize revenue for the wireless operators, yet optimizing customer satisfaction by providing differentiated quality of service to different classes of users.