Unwired: A simulation test-bed for mobile P2P live streaming

Abstract

The success of peer-to-peer live video streaming in wireline networks has inspired the development of mobile peer-to-peer streaming technologies. However, the traditional peer-to-peer live streaming techniques have been found to perform sub-optimal in wireless networks. Furthermore, the increasing energy consumption in wireless networks due to inefficient communication protocols has resulted in the need to develop greener, more energy efficient communication solutions. Therefore, we present Unwired, an OMNet++ based simulator for the development of mobile peer-to-peer live video streaming techniques. We have built upon the DenaCast simulation framework for peer-to-peer live streaming to include wireless peers. The major contributions to the existing framework are in the form of introducing mobility on the wireless peers, enabling hand-offs for the mobile peers and providing a power component on each mobile peer to monitor the energy consumption by the peers during video streaming. We simulate a hybrid network including both wireline and wireless peers and study the similarities and differences in the performance of the two types of peers. Finally, we explain the utility of the power component in the future development of energy efficient communication protocols for wireless networks.