Web 2.0 Video Distribution

It often seems like there isn't anything new in the field of Video Content distribution, as it has been controlled and dominated for a long time by the Peer-to-Peer networks:

• Most of us already have P2P software client for downloading files and Video content, such as eMule and Bittorrent
• Over 80% of internet traffic today is related to file sharing and transferring, mostly of Video files.

So what can be new?
The advancement and innovation in content distribution fields, contradict one another:

• Content P2P network filtering and blocking
• Acceleration and caching of content traffic

P2P Filtering
Many companies today have reached the conclusion that P2P trafficking will fully utilized their enterprise communication capabilities that is why products that block or limit P2P traffic have been developed. The P2P filtering products are designed for the ISP and the Enterprise markets.
Among the companies that offer P2P filtering solutions are: Ellcoya, Sandvine and Allot (Israeli Company).

In the attaché Diagram (by Snadvine) you can see the influence of the products in minimizing and lowering the bandwidth of P2P networks.

Acceleration and Caching of content

File download Acceleration
In the field of Video content acceleration we can see a great success for Limelight Networks who provide caching services.
Limelight had done many deals with User Generated Content (UGC) distributors, a recent one which was announced this month was with UGC leader Metacafe.
Limelight service assists content distributors that wish to accelerate file download time and so improve the users quality of experience. The UGC files are usually not streamed but simply downloaded over HTTP. By utilizing "Progressive Download" technology, the flash player is able to play those files before they are completely downloaded. This technology saves money to content distributors since streaming technology costs much more than simple download technology.
These services still do not solve Video Streaming issues.

Video Streaming acceleration
The standard architecture of video streaming is a Client-Server architecture in which one server provides a limited number of concurrent clients. The disadvantages of this type of solution are the high price of servers and the need to increase the number of servers as the number of users grows.
There are two possible directions in which P2P could evolve in order to provide better Quality-of-Experience (QoE) to the user.

• Accelerating current P2P file download – a file will be downloaded in a matter of minutes instead of in a few days. This is fairly easy and requires only changing the download queuing mechanism.
• Video streaming – Creating a streaming support mechanism in P2P network which will enable streaming and not just file download. This streaming method could later replace the traditional Client-Server streaming architecture.

The use of P2P networks for Streaming is not a new concept; vTrails has developed a streaming technology based on P2P networks for radio stations. vTrails solution never picked up, probably due too bad timing.

Today however, the P2P market is bubbling. The players today are:
Bittorrent – the wild and common P2P protocol that was used in the past for the purposes of file sharing (partly illegal) is trying to change its image and is signing distribution deals with large media companies. In addition it seems that BitTorrent is creating a new paid service that accelerates the downloading time.
Joost – Joost is a new venture by the creators of Skype and Kaaza that creates new opportunities for media consumption over P2P networks. More updates on Joost will be found in following articles.
Xunlei – a Chinese P2P network with 100 million users. Does Google have planes to use it for the purpose of multimedia streaming?
OverSi – an Israeli start-up company who provides acceleration and caching solutions for P2P networks. The serious downloader's among us have already identified the advantage in hooking up with Barak internet provider that uses OverSi caching technology to accelerate and shorten downloading time for there perscribers and to save on expensive bandwidth.
OverSi caching solutions enable to accelerate performances for all P2P networks and allow streaming as well.

Analysts predict that these solutions will be popular for Video on Demand (VOD) services of IPTV providers, and will allow acceleration of downloading movies and content in a separate payment.

In following articles we will continue to review the field of personalization and advertisement in Video, an up and coming field that is attracting large companies such as Google.