Showing papers on "Upload published in 2007"

Can internet video-on-demand be profitable?

Abstract: Video-on-demand in the Internet has become an immensely popular service in recent years. But due to its high bandwidth requirements and popularity, it is also a costly service to provide. We consider the design and potential benefits of peer-assisted video-on-demand, in which participating peers assist the server in delivering VoD content. The assistance is done in such a way that it provides the same user quality experience as pure client-server distribution. We focus on the single-video approach, whereby a peer only redistributes a video that it is currently watching.Using a nine-month trace from a client-server VoD deployment for MSN Video, we assess what the 95 percentile server bandwidth costs would have been if a peer-assisted employment had been instead used. We show that peer-assistance can dramatically reduce server bandwidth costs, particularly if peers prefetch content when there is spare upload capacity in the system. We consider the impact of peer-assisted VoD on the cross-traffic among ISPs. Although this traffic is significant, if care is taken to localize the P2P traffic within the ISPs, we can eliminate the ISP cross traffic while still achieving important reductions in server bandwidth. We also develop a simple analytical model which captures many of the critical features of peer-assisted VoD, including its operational modes.

Interactive in-store/in-mall and on-line shopping system and method

Abstract: An interactive system and method for shopping is disclosed that separates the shopping process from the buying process In one embodiment, the system includes an in-store/in-mall computer system and a plurality of handheld scanners configured to scan product information and upload that information to a central database The system further includes an interactive Web site that is in communication with the database The system allows a user to scan items for a wish list at participating stores before or after creating an account with the system The system also allows buyers to easily shop for others by searching for a user's wish list and personal preferences at the system Web site Furthermore, the system allows the user to select one or more buyers from an address book and notify the selected buyers of a specific wish list via e-mail

Free-riding in BitTorrent Networks with the Large View Exploit.

Abstract: This paper presents an experimental study on the behavior of BitTorrent networks when selfish peers attempt to maintain high download rates without uploading. We modified a BitTorrent client so that it acquires a larger than normal view of a BitTorrent swarm and connects to all peers in its view. At the same time, the modified client does not upload any data to its peers. Our experimental results show that: a) our modified freerider client can achieve better download rates than a compliant client in most common-case public torrents; b) when the percentage of our modified free-rider clients in PlanetLab-residing torrents with ∼300 leechers is less than 40%, free-riders on average outperform compliant clients; and c) as the number of free-riders increases, both free-riders and compliant clients incur substantial performance degradation. These results suggest that the large view exploit is effective, and it has the potential for wide adoption.

Method for Initiating and Launching Collaboration Sessions

Abstract: A document collaboration process is centered around a digital media object that is the subject of the collaboration, and makes the role of the server computer that is hosting the collaboration session more transparent to the user. As a result, a user can initiate a collaboration session without logging into the server computer and uploading the digital media object into the server computer. A user can also join a collaboration session without logging into the server computer. The process for initiating a collaboration session may be performed directly from the browser while viewing a web page, directly from an e-mail interface while viewing an e-mail, directly from an Instant Messaging Interface while participating in an IM session or directly from a file browser while viewing a list of files stored in the user computer.

On scheduling vehicle-roadside data access

Abstract: As vehicular networks become popular, more and more people want to access data from their vehicles. When many vehicles want to access data through a roadside unit, data scheduling becomes an important issue. In this paper, we identify some challenges in vehicle-roadside data access. As vehicles move pretty fast, the requests should be served quickly. Also, vehicles may upload data to the roadside unit, and hence the download and upload requests compete for the same bandwidth. To address these challenges, we propose several scheduling schemes. We first propose a basic scheduling scheme called D*S to consider both service deadline and data size. We then enhance it by using a single broadcast to serve multiple requests. Finally, we identify the effects of upload requests on data quality, and propose a Two-Step scheduling scheme to provide a balance between serving download and update requests. Simulation results show that the Two-Step scheduling scheme outperforms other scheduling schemes.

A performance study of BitTorrent-like peer-to-peer systems

Abstract: This paper presents a performance study of BitTorrent-like P2P systems by modeling, based on extensive measurements and trace analysis. Existing studies on BitTorrent systems are single-torrent based and usually assume the process of request arrivals to a torrent is Poisson-like. However, in reality, most BitTorrent peers participate in multiple torrents and file popularity changes over time. Our study of representative BitTorrent traffic provides insights into the evolution of single-torrent systems and several new findings regarding the limitations of BitTorrent systems: (1) Due to the exponentially decreasing peer arrival rate in a torrent, the service availability of the corresponding file becomes poor quickly, and eventually it is hard to locate and download this file. (2) Client performance in the BitTorrent-like system is unstable, and fluctuates significantly with the changes of the number of online peers. (3) Existing systems could provide unfair services to peers, where a peer with a higher downloading speed tends to download more and upload less. Motivated by the analysis and modeling results, we have further proposed a graph based model to study interactions among multiple torrents. Our model quantitatively demonstrates that inter-torrent collaboration is much more effective than stimulating seeds to serve longer for addressing the service unavailability in BitTorrent systems. An architecture for inter-torrent collaboration under an exchange based instant incentive mechanism is also discussed and evaluated by simulations

Method and apparatus for creating a remotely activated secure backup service for mobile handsets

Abstract: Method and systems for protecting data on a mobile handset when remotely activated by a user involve encrypting the data using an encryption key, storing the encrypted data, and deleting the non-encrypted data along with the encryption key. Data may also be uploaded to a server to via a cellular data call for use in backing up the mobile handset. A mobile handset application configures the handset to receive activation commands from a server to encrypt, upload or download data. The encryption key is either received from the server or generated by the mobile handset and communicated to the server. Mock data files may be generated and stored on the mobile handset to enable handset applications to function normally after the data files have been encrypted.

On the minimum delay peer-to-peer video streaming: how realtime can it be?

Abstract: P2P systems exploit the uploading bandwidth of individual peers to distribute content at low server cost. While the P2P bandwidth sharing design is very efficient for bandwidth sensitive applications, it imposes a fundamental performance constraint for delay sensitive applications: the uploading bandwidth of a peer cannot be utilized to upload a piece of content until it completes the download of that content. This constraint sets up a limit on how fast a piece of content can be disseminated to all peers in a P2P system. In this paper, we theoretically study the impact of this inherent delay constraint and derive the minimum delay bounds for realtime P2P streaming systems. We show that the bandwidth heterogeneity among peers can be exploited to significantly improve the delay performance of all peers. We further propose a simple snow-ball streaming algorithm to approach the minimum delay bound in realtime P2P video streaming. Our analysis suggests that the proposed algorithm has better delay performance and more robust than existing tree-based streaming solutions. Insights brought forth by our study can be used to guide the design of new P2P systems with shorter startup delays.

Dandelion: cooperative content distribution with robust incentives

Abstract: Content distribution via the Internet is becoming increasingly popular. To be cost-effective, commercial content providers are considering the use of peer-to-peer (P2P) protocols such as BitTorrent to save on bandwidth costs and to handle peak demands. However, when an online content provider uses a P2P protocol, it faces a crucial issue: how to incentivize its clients to upload to their peers. This paper presents Dandelion, a system designed to address this issue in the case of paid content distribution. Unlike previous solutions, most notably BitTorrent, Dandelion provides robust (provably non-manipulable) incentives for clients to upload to others. In addition, unlike systems with tit-for-tat-based incentives, a client is motivated to upload to its peers even if the peers do not have content that interests the client. A client that honestly uploads to its peers is rewarded with credit, which can be redeemed for various types of rewards, such as discounts on paid content. In designing Dandelion, we trade scalability for the ability to provide robust incentives. The evaluation of our prototype system on PlanetLab demonstrates the viability of our approach. A Dandelion server that runs on commodity hardware with a moderate access link is capable of supporting up to a few thousand clients. These clients can download content at rates comparable to those of BitTorrent clients.

Distributed Vehicle Event Recorder Systems having a Portable Memory Data Transfer System

Abstract: Data transfer systems for vehicle event recorders are provided as: a vehicle event recorder, a vehicle event recorder resident memory, and upload module in conjunction with, a communication port suitable for coupling with, a portable memory device, a server computer datastore, a server download module in conjunction with, a similar cooperating communications port. The portable memory device is arranged to operably couple with the communications ports of both the vehicle event recorder and the server computer and to be repeatedly moved between the two. The upload/download modules are arranged to transfer data to/from the portable memory in an orderly fashion in which no files are removed from the vehicle event recorder resident memory without first having been successfully transferred to the server computer datastore.

Improving VoD server efficiency with bittorrent

Abstract: This paper presents and evaluates Toast, a scalable Video-on-Demand (VoD)streaming system that combines the popular BitTorrent peer-to-peer (P2P)file-transfer technology with a simple dedicated streaming server to decrease server load and increase client transfer speed. Toast includes a modified version of BitTorrent that supports streaming data delivery and that communicates with a VoD server when the desired data cannot be delivered in real-time by other peers. The results show that the default BitTorrent download strategy is not well-suited to the VoD environment because it fetches pieces of the desired video from other peers without regard to when those pieces will actually be needed by the media viewer. Instead, strategies should favor downloading pieces of content that will be needed earlier, decreasing the chances that the clients will be forced to get the data directly from the VoD server. Such strategies allow Toast to operate much more efficiently than simple unicast distribution, reducing data transfer demands by up to 70-90% if clients remain in the system as seeds after viewing their content. Toast thus extends the aggregate throughput capability of a VoD service, offloading work from the server onto the P2P network in a scalable and demand-driven fashion.

Social networking system and method

Abstract: A social networking system allows users to upload information about themselves to a remote database, preferably over the Internet. Users are able to connect to other users thus establishing links. These links may be categorized based on the relationship between the users, e.g., family, friends, co-workers, etc. The uploaded information may also be categorized using the same categories of relationships. The information of each user may then only be sent to users having a connection category that matches the information category.

Gossiping with Multiple Messages

Abstract: This paper investigates the dissemination of multiple pieces of information in large networks where users contact each other in a random uncoordinated manner, and users upload one piece per unit time. The underlying motivation is the design and analysis of piece selection protocols for peer-to-peer networks which disseminate files by dividing them into pieces. We first investigate one-sided protocols, where piece selection is based on the states of either the transmitter or the receiver. We show that any such protocol relying only on pushes, or alternatively only on pulls, will be inefficient in disseminating all pieces to all users. We propose a hybrid one-sided piece selection protocol -INTERLEAVE -and show that by using both pushes and pulls it disseminates k pieces from a single source to n users in 10(k + log n) time, while obeying the constraint that each user can upload at most one piece in one unit of time. An optimal, unrealistic centralized protocol would take k + log2 n time in this setting. Moreover, efficient dissemination is also possible if the source implements forward erasure coding, and users push the latest-released coded pieces (but do not pull). We also investigate two-sided protocols where piece selection is based on the states of both the trasmitter and the receiver. We show that it is possible to disseminate n pieces to n users in + O(log n) time, starting from an initial state where each user has a unique piece.

Auditing system for wireless networks

Abstract: Independently evaluating the performance of the billing systems of wireless carriers. Devices are provisioned with a collection profile that enables the devices to capture event data at the devices that corresponds to billable events. The collected data is uploaded to a collection and management system. The collection and management system can then compare the collected event data with the billable data generated by the billing systems of wireless carriers to identify discrepancies in the billable events, determine relative performance of elements in the carrier's wireless networks, and identify traffic or load based loss in carrier's billable data.

Extended Abstract: Forward-Secure Sequential Aggregate Authentication

Abstract: Wireless sensors are employed in a wide range of applications. One common feature of many sensor settings is the need to communicate sensed data to some collection point or sink. This communication can be direct (to a mobile collector) or indirect-via other sensors towards a remote sink. In either case, a sensor might not be able to communicate to a sink at will. Instead it might collect data and wait (for a potentially long time) for a signal to upload accumulated data directly. In a hostile setting, a sensor may be compromised and its post-compromise data can be manipulated. One important issue is forward security - how to ensure that pre- compromise data cannot be manipulated? Since a typical sensor is limited in storage and communication facilities, another issue is how to minimize resource consumption by accumulated data. It turns out that current techniques are insufficient to address both challenges. To this end, we explore the notion of forward-secure sequential aggregate (FssAgg) authentication schemes. We consider FssAgg authentication schemes in the contexts of both conventional and public key cryptography and construct a FssAgg MAC scheme and a FssAgg signature scheme, each suitable under different assumptions. This work represents the initial investigation of forward-secure aggregation and, although the proposed schemes are not optimal, we believe it opens a new direction for follow-on research.

Online remote control configuration system

Abstract: An online remote control configuration system for efficiently programming a remote control to recognize a plurality of external electronic devices. The online remote control configuration system includes a remote control having a housing, a keypad, and an electronic system for receiving configuration data from a control station via a global computer network (e.g. Internet). The user preferably “samples” one or more signals from a remote control into the electronic system and then uploads the samples to the control station. The control station analyzes the uploaded samples and transmits the appropriate configuration data to properly configure the electronic system. The user may also access a web site of the control station and manually select each of the external electronic devices that the remote control is to operate after which the control station sends the appropriate configuration data to the electronic system.

Peer-Assisted VoD: Making Internet Video Distribution Cheap.

Abstract: We consider the design and potential benefits of peerassisted video-on-demand, in which participating peers assist the server in delivering VoD content. The assistance is done in such a way that it provides the same user quality experience as pure clientserver distribution. We focus on the single-video approach, whereby a peer only redistributes a video that it is currently watching. We first describe three natural prefetching policies for exploiting surplus peer upload capacity. We then study the performance of peer-assisted VoD using stochastic simulation and trace-driven simulation, with traces collected from the MSN Video service. The results of these simulations show that peer-assisted VoD, with the proper prefetching policy, can dramatically reduce server bandwidth costs.

Extending large-scale event participation with user-created mobile media on a public display

Abstract: Most large public displays have been used for providing information to passers-by with the primary purpose of acting as one-way information channels to individual users. We have developed a large public display to which users can send their own media content using mobile devices. The display supports multi-touch interaction, thus enabling collaborative use of the display. This display called CityWall was set up in a city center with the goal of showing information of events happening in the city. We observed two user groups who used mobile phones with upload capability during two large-scale events happening in the city. Our findings are that this kind of combined use of personal mobile devices and a large public display as a publishing forum, used collaboratively with other users, creates a unique setting that extends the group's feeling of participation in the events. We substantiate this claim with examples from user data.

Method & system for acquiring, storing, & managing software applications via a communications network

Abstract: A comprehensive software storage and management method and system includes a storage network and an online, preferably web2.0 software application, which allows the user(s) to store and manage their software applications over the network for any digital device that communicates with the Internet, whether mobile or non-mobile, and whether or not the device is wireless. The application will allow the user(s) to view, manage, upload, download and install any of their available, and to be acquired, software applications over the Internet at anytime via an Internet Connection. The system provides a “one button” upload of new software applications, “one button” download existing or acquired software applications, automatic software authentication for the users and/or vendors, and many other software management options.

Smart pre-fetching for peer assisted on-demand media

Abstract: A “Media Sharer” operates within peer-to-peer (P2P) networks to provide a dynamic peer-driven system for streaming high quality multimedia content, such as a video-on-demand (VoD) service, to participating peers while minimizing server bandwidth requirements. In general, the Media Sharer provides a peer-assisted framework wherein participating peers assist the server in delivering on-demand media content to other peers. Participating peers cooperate to provide at least the same quality media delivery service as a pure server-client media distribution. However, given this peer cooperation, many more peers can be served with relatively little increase in server bandwidth requirements. Further, each peer limits its assistance to redistributing only portions of the media content that it also receiving. Peer upload bandwidth for redistribution is determined as a function of surplus peer upload capacity and content need of neighboring peers, with earlier arriving peers uploading content to later arriving peers.

Detecting data propagation in a distributed system

Abstract: Embodiments gather historical information about data propagation by monitoring requests to and replies from a server. When a request is received from a client system to upload code onto a web site, a user identity associated with the client system is determined and a tag that uniquely identifies the uploaded data is created and mapped with the user identity into a propagation graph. The propagation graph includes nodes and edges associated with a number of client systems that made similar requests such that each node of the propagation graph corresponds to both a tag and user identity of a client system and edges within the propagation graph represent causality links between the nodes. The propagation graph can then be used for finding long propagation chains, which can be useful for detecting worm-like propagation activity.

Jumbo store: providing efficient incremental upload and versioning for a utility rendering service

Abstract: We have developed a new storage system called the Jumbo Store (JS) based on encoding directory tree snapshots as graphs called HDAGs whose nodes are small variable-length chunks of data and whose edges are hash pointers. We store or transmit each node only once and encode using landmark-based chunking plus some new tricks. This leads to very efficient incremental upload and storage of successive snapshots: we report compression factors over 16x for real data; a comparison shows that our incremental upload sends only 1/5 as much data as Rsync. To demonstrate the utility of the Jumbo Store, we have integrated it into HP Labs' prototype Utility Rendering Service (URS), which accepts rendering data in the form of directory tree snapshots from small teams of animators, renders one or more requested frames using a processor farm, and then makes the rendered frames available for download. Efficient incremental upload is crucial to the URS's usability and responsiveness because of the teams' slow Internet connections. We report on the JS's performance during a major field test of the URS where the URS was offered to 11 groups of animators for 10 months during an animation showcase to create high-quality short animations.

Protocol for secure and energy-efficient reprogramming of wireless multi-hop sensor networks

Abstract: A protocol for optimizing the energy for code upload to sensors in a wireless sensor network and speeding up the dissemination if multiple sources of code are available. Energy optimization is achieved by equipping each node with limited non-local topology information, which it uses to determine the time when it can go to sleep since code is not being distributed in its vicinity. Another aspect of the invention is a protocol that facilitates secure upload of code in the wireless sensor network. The secure communication protocol divides the sensor field into control groups each with a control node, and manages data exchange between nodes within a control group through the mediation of a control head which provides the common key. The keys are refreshed periodically and the control nodes are changed periodically to enhance security. The protocol facilitates secure communication between sensor nodes despite the compromise of any number of other nodes in the network.

Building plan compliance system and method

Abstract: A system for performing a computerized building code compliance check with an appropriate jurisdiction is disclosed The system enables a user to connect to a compliance utility by way of the Internet in order to upload a CAD file When a CAD file is received, the system performs an analysis to determine whether the building plan was compiled in accordance with defined naming conventions When a plan is determined to be of the appropriate format, the system extracts building elements from the CAD file, compares each element against a corresponding jurisdictional code, and determines whether the building plan is compliant When the system determines that a building plan is compliant, the user is provided with a certificate of compliance The system further analyzes building plans to provide highly targeted offers and enables vendors to bid to provide goods and services based on plan details

EnviroStore: A Cooperative Storage System for Disconnected Operation in Sensor Networks

Abstract: This paper presents a new cooperative storage system for sensor networks geared for disconnected operation (where sensor nodes do not have a connected path to a basestation). The goal of the system is to maximize its data storage capacity by appropriately distributing storage utilization and opportunistically offloading data to external devices when possible. The system is motivated by the observation that a large category of sensor network applications, such as environmental data logging, does not require real-time data access. Such networks generally operate in a disconnected mode. Rather than focusing on multihop routing to a basestation, an important concern becomes (i) to maximize the effective storage capacity of the disconnected sensor network such that it accommodates the most data, and (ii) to take the best advantage of data upload opportunities when they become available to relieve network storage. The storage system described in this paper achieves the above goals, leading to significant improvements in the amount of data collected compared to non-cooperative storage. It is implemented in nesC for TinyOS and evaluated in TOSSIM through various application scenarios.

Techniques for sharing data

Abstract: Techniques for sharing data between users in a manner that maintains anonymity of the users. Tokens are generated and provided to users for sharing data. A token comprises information encoding an identifier and an encryption key. A user may use a token to upload data that is to be shared. The data to be shared is encrypted using the encryption key associated with the token and the encrypted data is stored such that it can be accessed using the identifier associated with the token. A user may then use a token to access the shared data. The identifier associated with the token being used to access the shared data is used to access the data and the encryption key associated with the token is used to decrypt the data. Data is shared anonymously without revealing the identity of the users using the tokens.

Gossiping With Multiple Messages

Abstract: This paper investigates the dissemination of multiple pieces of information in large networks where users contact each other in a random uncoordinated manner, and users upload one piece per unit time. The underlying motivation is the design and analysis of piece selection protocols for peer-to-peer networks which disseminate files by dividing them into pieces. We first investigate one-sided protocols, where piece selection is based on the states of either the transmitter or the receiver. We show that any such protocol relying only on pushes, or alternatively only on pulls, is inefficient in disseminating all pieces to all users. We propose a hybrid one-sided piece selection protocol-INTERLEAVE-and show that by using both pushes and pulls it disseminates k pieces from a single source to n users in 9(k + log n) time, while obeying the constraint that each user can upload at most one piece in one unit of time, with high probability for large n. An optimal, unrealistic, centralized protocol would take k + log2 n time in this setting. For a soft upload constraint, the finishing time of INTERLEAVE is, with high probability, at most 3.2(k + log n). Moreover, efficient dissemination is also possible if the source implements forward erasure coding, and users push the latest released coded pieces (but do not pull). We also investigate two-sided protocols where piece selection is based on the states of both the transmitter and the receiver. We show that it is possible to disseminate n pieces to n users in n + O(log n) time, starting from an initial state where each user has a unique piece.

Print Is Dead: Books in Our Digital Age

Abstract: Introduction PART I: STOP THE PRESSES Byte Flight Us and Them Newspapers Are No Longer News PART II: THE DIGITAL TIPPING POINT Generation Download Generation Upload On Demand Everything eBooks and the Revolution that Didn't Happen PART III: SAYING GOODBYE TO THE BOOK Writers in a Digital Future Readers in a Digital Future Will Books Disappear? Afterword Acknowledgements Notes