Community Networking:
Getting Peer to Peer out of Prison
Marie-José Montpetit Eng. Ph.D.
Motorola H&NM Technology Office
P2P?
“Peer-to-peer (P2P) is a type of transient Internet network that allows a group
of users with the same networking program to connect directly with each
other to provide a certain service (originally file access but now voice, remote
execution etc.)” (from whatis.com)
 P2P is a “loaded” word that really defines how a community of users shares
resources
– Move from “thiefs” to “collaborators”
 P2P (and collaborating edge devices) are here already:
– Bluetooth devices and connectivity for file transfers between phones, PCs and
even Lego robots
– DLNA and UPnP home networks
– Network resources pooled in meshed WIFI networks
– SETI
– Etc.
The challenge is to demonstrate the P2P advantages
across the value chain and the OSI stack – but advantages to who?
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Why “Community Based”?
 Just need to re-interpret (and reinvent) P2P?
– Move the network functionality to the edge
• Control plane (p2p signaling for discovery)
• Management plane (autonomics aspects)
• Data plane (p2p routing)
– Exchange deploying more expensive uplink bandwidth for shared
community resources:
• The need for sharing user generated multimedia (YouTube etc.) will not go
away
• Uplink bandwidth is still expensive but local bandwidth (WIFI for example is
cheaper)
– Less people pay but they pay more
• The community manages the local costs (SON heritage?)
– Use hybrids
• Uses some servers to offer connectivity to outside services (PVRs for example)
while serving the community
• Maybe essential if content is commercial
– Defines multisided applications without the center
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Why “Community Based”?
 What is a community?
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“Sneaker net”
Home net
WPAN, WLAN, WWAN
Neighbors and family
Global social network
 The ecosystem
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Gateways
Handsets
PC
STB
Servers
Sensor networks
Appliance networks
and even webcams!
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Why “Community Based”?
 Need to get away from the “Lord of the boxes” approach
– No need to have the device that “rules them all”
– Need to harness the “power” of:
• Home devices and home networks connectivity
• “Power users”
– Focus on:
• Autonomics
• Social networking
• Communities of interest
– Scalability of the architecture
• But (still) cost can be an issue
• And the absence of common platform introduces complexities
– Use case
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Laptops for CPU intensive applications
DVR for storage (local and non local)
Cell phones for voice
Web pads for display
Sensors for real time information
Etc.
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A solution: Communities at Different Layers
 Physical layer: the resources and the devices
 Network layer: the connectivity
 Service layer: the social fabric
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Peering at Different Layers
 Physical layer:
– Manage the installed base of broadband connections to the neighborhood
– Survive the uplink glut
• Reduce the number of high speed lines needed to serve a neighborhood
• Use super peers for local distribution
– Reduce the number of streams serving the community
• Use peer based storage/DVR
• “Watch your neighbor’s TV” as an alternative to server based channel change
– It is well known that not all of the 500+ channels are watched at any instant
– Encourage the use of home networks, local CPU and shared resources
• Reductions in OPEX/CAPEX passed down to the users?
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Peering at Different Layers
 Network layer
– Advanced policy management
• Favor the community
– Device and service discovery “2.0”: not just what they are, who they are and how
to access them
• Heterogeneous peers
• Capability discovery
– Determine if this device is a renderer, a transit point and or a storage point, as well as determining if
is has a link to the non P2P network (for AAA for example) and can become a super node and a trust
authority
– Local routing and load balancing
– Scalability
• From “sneaker net” to SETI
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Most likely tens to thousands
• Propagation of discovery information
– QoS
• Some operators have a “less than best effort category” for P2P
• Video quality can suffer
• Cases to consider:
– Pre-recorded – known traffic profile
– Live content –
» Unknown traffic profile especially for video
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Peering at Different Layers
 Service layer
– Use your social network as a virtual operator
• You and your friend define what the offering is and transfer it to the nearest
peer
– Based on common “likes”
– Based on “instanteneous” behavior
• Multi-network and multi-operators
– Define common middleware across platforms
• A challenge: your community will most likely not have a uniform installed base
of devices
• For the moment: all applications are developed in silos
– Features:
• Autonomics
• Security and privacy and of course DRM when applicable
• Local media switching (no more channel change, content change)
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Business Aspects
What could make operators adopt a community approach
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Uplink glut
Sticky-ness of their customers (themselves becoming over the top)
New provisioning and customer management
QOS/policy management
 New method to distribute content?
– Put content in front of more customers event outside their networks
– PVR are now secondary content and video servers
 But:
– Are “new” P2P entrants eroding the business of the incumbents?
• V.g. Joost, VEOH, Neocast vs. Comcast, Verizon, FT, BT etc.
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Business Aspects
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Business Aspects
 Recent work from Chintan Vaishnav of Sloan/CSAIL on using game
theory to evaluate the impact of new entrants on incumbent’s
business
– Players:
• Incumbents, entrants, content providers (for video) and end users
 Early conclusion
– P2P Incumbent shifts the focus of the service from the network and
bandwidth to ancillary services and quality of the service offering
– Move from a “winner take all” to a more diversified marketplace
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Business Aspects (sample result)
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Conclusion
 Where do we go now?
– Evolve the network offering to the community
• Video is key: better use of the scarce uplink resources and untapped local
resources (PVRs, WIFI etc.)
– Offer some new paradigms for management of communities and
discovery of peers and their capabilities (not all the peers are equal)
• Making sure the devices that are part of the community are used appropriately
• Create value and revenue
Is the community the key to the next generation Internet and the move
to the Mobile Internet?
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