Patent ID: 9680926
Date: 2017-06-13
CPC Classifications: H04L

Claim:
1. A method, in a network supervising entity, of arranging peers in a peer-to-peer (P2P) network comprising a streaming source uploading data content and network peers arranged at distribution levels in the P2P network, wherein network peers at distribution levels closer to the streaming source have lower latencies than network peers at distribution levels farther from the streaming source, the method comprising: receiving, by the network supervising entity, a request from a peer entering the network to receive the data content; determining, by the network supervising entity, an entering peer distribution level in the P2P network at which the entering peer is to be arranged with respect to the streaming source by sampling, by the network supervising entity, a distribution level from a conditional probability distribution, wherein the conditional probability distribution is based on a network peer distribution level for each of the network peers and an upload capacity for each of the network peers; arranging, by the network supervising entity, the entering peer at the determined entering peer distribution level in the P2P network; and providing, by the network supervising entity, the arranged entering peer with a plurality of peers selected from the network peers from which the requested data content can be downloaded with an expected probability depending on the determined entering peer distribution level, and further indicating the distribution level of each of the plurality of peers, wherein the arranged entering peer is enabled to download, with the expected probability, the requested data content from a selected one of said plurality of peers being arranged at a distribution level closest to that determined for the arranged entering peer.