Method and System of Peer-to-Peer Communication

Abstract

A method includes receiving a request via a peer-to-peer network at a first media device from a second media device. The request indicates a portion of video content and also indicates a time that delivery of the portion of video content to the second media device is to be completed. The method further includes transmitting, based on a data rate, the portion from the first media device to the second media device. The data rate is based on a bandwidth that is less than an available bandwidth usable by the first media device to transmit data and that is greater than or equal to a bandwidth threshold for serving the request. The bandwidth threshold is based on the time indicated by the request.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 receiving a request via a peer-to-peer network at a first media device from a second media device, the request indicating a portion of video content, wherein the request indicates a time that delivery of the portion of video content to the second media device is to be completed; and   transmitting, based on a data rate, the portion from the first media device to the second media device, wherein the data rate is based on a bandwidth that is less than an available bandwidth usable by the first media device to transmit data and that is greater than or equal to a bandwidth threshold for serving the request, the bandwidth threshold based on the time indicated by the request.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising determining, at the first media device and prior to transmitting the portion to the second media device, to transmit the portion to the second media device using less than the available bandwidth. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising determining the data rate at the first media device based on a size of the portion and the time indicated by the request in response to determining to transmit the portion to the second media device. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the data rate is less than or equal to S/T, wherein S indicates the size of the portion, and wherein T indicates an amount of time remaining until the portion is to be delivered to the second media device. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the first media device transmits the portion to the second media device using at least half of the amount of time remaining. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the video content includes a plurality of portions including the portion, each of the plurality of portions less than an entire portion of the video content. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the video content is encoded based on an erasure encoding scheme that enables recovery of one or more portions of the plurality of portions using one or more other portions of the plurality of portions. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising receiving a message at the first media device, the message indicating an incentive. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the incentive includes a reduction in advertisements in video content received at the first media device, a monetary payment, early access to a new video content item, free video content, a micropayment from the second media device in exchange for the portion, or any combination thereof. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein other portions of the video content are provided to the second media device from other media devices using a peer-to-peer sharing process to enable the first media device to transmit fewer than all portions of the video content to the second media device using less than the available bandwidth while satisfying a threshold download rate by the second media device. 
     
     
         11 . A computer-readable storage device storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations including:
 sending a request via a peer-to-peer network to a first media device from a second media device, the request indicating a portion of video content, wherein the request indicates a time that delivery of the portion of video content to the second media device is to be completed; and   receiving, based on a data rate, the portion from the first media device at the second media device, wherein the data rate is based on a bandwidth that is less than an available bandwidth usable by the first media device to transmit data and that is greater than or equal to a bandwidth threshold for serving the request, the bandwidth threshold based on the time indicated by the request.   
     
     
         12 . The computer-readable storage device of  claim 11 , the operations further including selecting a plurality of server-peer media devices from which to request a subset of a plurality of portions of the video content, the plurality of server-peer media devices including the first media device and the subset that includes the portion. 
     
     
         13 . The computer-readable storage device of  claim 12 , the operations further including sending a plurality of requests for the subset of the plurality of portions to the plurality of server-peer media devices, the plurality of requests including the request. 
     
     
         14 . The computer-readable storage device of  claim 12 , wherein the video content is erasure-encoded. 
     
     
         15 . The computer-readable storage device of  claim 14 , wherein the subset corresponds to a particular number of the plurality of portions that is less than all portions of the plurality of portions. 
     
     
         16 . The computer-readable storage device of  claim 12 , the operations further including:
 decoding the subset of the plurality of portions to recover one or more of the portions of the video content using the subset; and   playing the one or more of the portions.   
     
     
         17 . The computer-readable storage device of  claim 12 , the operations further including accessing a portion-to-media device mapping for the video content, wherein the plurality of server-peer media devices from which to retrieve the subset of the plurality of portions is selected based on the portion-to-media device mapping. 
     
     
         18 . The computer-readable storage device of  claim 12 , wherein the operations further include:
 determining a failure to receive one of the plurality of portions of the video content from one of the plurality of media devices; and   retrieving the one of the plurality of portions of the video content from a central server in response to determining the failure.   
     
     
         19 . A system comprising:
 a receiver device configured to receive a request at a first media device via a peer-to-peer network from a second media device, the request indicating a portion of video content, wherein the request indicates a time that delivery of the portion of video content to the second media device is to be completed; and   a transmitter device configured to transmit, based on a data rate, the portion from the first media device to the second media device, wherein the data rate is based on a bandwidth that is less than an available bandwidth usable by the first media device to transmit data and that is greater than or equal to a bandwidth threshold for serving the request, the bandwidth threshold based on the time indicated by the request.   
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 19 , wherein the peer-to-peer network comprises a plurality of wire line connections between a plurality of media devices and at least one switch.