Towards capacity and profit optimization of video-on-demand services in a peer-assisted IPTV platform

This paper studies the conditions under which peer-to-peer (P2P) technology may be beneficial in providing IPTV services over typical network architectures. It has three major contributions. First, we contrast two network models used to study the performance of such a system: a commonly used logical “Internet as a cloud” model and a “physical” model that reflects the characteristics of the underlying network. Specifically, we show that the cloud model overlooks important architectural aspects of the network and may drastically overstate the benefits of P2P technology. Second, we propose an algorithm called Zebra that pre-stripes content across multiple peers during idle hours to speed up P2P content delivery in an IPTV environment with limited upload bandwidth. We also perform simulations to measure Zebra’s effectiveness at reducing load on the content server during peak hours. Third, we provide a cost-benefit analysis of P2P video content delivery, focusing on the profit trade-offs for different pricing/incentive models rather than purely on capacity maximization. In particular, we find that under high volume of video demand, a P2P built-in incentive model performs better than any other model, while the conventional no-P2P model generates more profits when the request rate is low. The flat-reward model generally falls in between the usage-based model and the built-in model in terms of profitability except for low request rates. We also find that built-in and flat-reward models are more profitable than the usage-based model for a wide range of subscriber community sizes. Funding for J. Rahe’s research has been provided by AT&T Labs, the State of California under the MICR Oprogram, and by the Toshiba Corporation. Zhen Xiao is partially supported by China MOST project (2006BAH02A10).     

iMobile EE – An Enterprise Mobile Service Platform

iMobile is an enterprise mobile service platform that allows resource-limited mobile devices to communicate with each other and to securely access corporate contents and services. The original iMobile architecture consists of devlets that provide protocol interfaces to different mobile devices and infolets that access and transcode information based on device profiles. iMobile Enterprise Edition (iMobile EE) is a redesign of the original iMobile architecture to address the security, scalability, and availability requirements of a large enterprise such as AT&T. iMobile EE incorporates gateways that interact with corporate authentication services, replicated iMobile servers with backend connections to corporate services, a reliable message queue that connects iMobile gateways and servers, and a comprehensive service profile database that governs operations of the mobile service platform. The iMobile EE architecture was also extended to provide personalized multimedia services, allowing mobile users to remotely control, record, and request video contents. iMobile EE aims to provide a scalable, secure, and modular software platform that makes enterprise services easily accessible to a growing list of mobile devices roaming among various wireless networks.     

Electrochemical passive properties of AlxCoCrFeNi (x = 0, 0.25, 0.50, 1.00) alloys in sulfuric acids

This study investigates the electrochemical passive properties of Al_xCoCrFeNi alloys in H₂SO₄ by potentiodynamic polarization, EIS, and weight loss tests from 20 to 65 °C. Experimental results indicate that Al harms the corrosion resistance in H₂SO₄ at temperatures exceeding 27 °C owing to the porous and inferior nature of the protection oxide film of Al in these alloys. Closely examining the Arrhenius plots of corrosion current density reveals that both pre-exponential factor A and activation energy E_a increase with Al content. However, A affects corrosion current density more significantly than E_a at higher temperatures and, conversely, at lower temperatures.     

Hydrogen storage properties of multi-principal-component CoFeMnTixVyZrz alloys

This study presents an innovative multi-principal-element CoFeMnTiVZr alloy system for the absorption and desorption of hydrogen. Pressure-composition-isotherms (PCIs) demonstrate that CoFeMnTi_xVZr, CoFeMnTiV_yZr, and CoFeMnTiVZr_z can absorb and desorb hydrogen for x, y, and z that satisfy 0.5 ≤ x ≤ 2.5, 0.4 ≤ y ≤ 3.0, and 0.4 ≤ z ≤ 3.0, respectively. X-ray diffraction (XRD) reveals that CoFeMnTi_xV_yZr_z alloys have a simple C14 Laves phase with a single set of lattice parameters before and after PCI tests. The distributions of each element in CoFeMnTi_xV_yZr_z alloys are roughly equal, as revealed by SEM/EDS mapping. The effects of values x, y, and z on the hydrogen storage properties are elucidated in terms of lattice constant, element segregation, hydride formation enthalpies of the alloy components and hydrogen, and the averaged formation enthalpy. The high-entropy effect promotes the formation of a single C14 Laves phase, and the maximum hydrogen storage capacity is strongly related to the hydride formation enthalpy of the alloy and hydrogen.     

Electrical, magnetic, and Hall properties of AlxCoCrFeNi high-entropy alloys

This investigation explores the electrical and magnetic properties of as-cast, -homogenized, and -deformed Al_xCoCrFeNi (C-x, H-x, and D-x, respectively) alloys at various temperatures from 4.2 to 300 K. Experimental results reveal that carrier density of the alloys is of 10^22-23 cm⁻³. H-x has a carrier mobility of 0.40-2.61 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹. The residual electrical resistivity of the alloys varies from 100 to 220 μΩ cm. The temperature coefficient of resistivity (TCR) of H-2.00 is small (82.5 ppm/K). Therefore, defects in the lattice dominate electrical transportation. Some compositions exhibit Kondo-like behavior. At 300 K, H-0.50, H-1.25, and H-2.00 are ferromagnetic, while H-0.00, H-0.25, and H-0.75 are paramagnetic. Al and AlNi-rich phases reduce the ferromagnetism of single FCC and single BCC H-x, respectively. Spin glass behavior of some compositions is also observed. Alloys H-x are of the hole-like carrier type, and ferromagnetic H-x exhibits an anomalous Hall effect (AHE).     

Zebroid: using IPTV data to support STB-assisted VoD content delivery

IPTV, unlike Internet TV, delivers digital TV and multimedia services over IP-based networks with the required level of quality of service (QoS) and quality of experience (QoE). Linear programming channels in IPTV are delivered through multicast, which is highly scalable with the number of subscribers. Video-on-demand (VoD) content, on the other hand, is typically delivered using unicast, which places a heavy load on the VoD servers and all the network components leading to the end-user set-top boxes (STBs) as the demand increases. With the rapid growth of IPTV subscribers and the shift in video viewing habits, the need to efficiently disseminate large volumes of VoD content has prompted IPTV service providers to consider the use of STBs to assist in video content delivery. This paper describes our current research work on Zebroid, a potential VoD solution for fiber-to-the-node (FTTN) networks, which uses IPTV data on a recurring basis to determine how to select, stripe, and preposition popular content in selected STBs during idle hours. A STB requesting VoD content during the peak hours can then receive necessary stripes from participating STBs in the neighborhood. Recent VoD request access patterns, STB availability data, and capacity data on network components are taken into consideration in determining the parameters used in the striping algorithm of Zebroid. We show both by simulation and emulation on a realistic IPTV testbed that the VoD server load can be reduced by more than 70% during peak hours by allocating only 8 GB of storage on each STB. The savings achieved through Zebroid would also allow IPTV service providers to add more linear programming channels without expensive infrastructure upgrades.     

Visualizing and analyzing software infrastructures

Companies frequently need to redesign their software infrastructures in response to marketplace changes, but they must do so carefully so that the new architecture will not disrupt existing operations or increase operating costs unnecessarily. To support these goals, system architects have long recognized the need to build a repository of information about all of their company's systems and their interfaces. Using this information, architects create system interface diagrams to help them study the existing architecture. The authors discuss their system, Enterprise Navigator, which lets users make ad hoc queries about an enterprise software architecture and then automatically generate the corresponding system interface diagram in real time on the Web