Dimensioning of overlay networks for P2P multicasting

Concepts of network virtualization and overlays are nowadays gaining much popularity and are perceived as key approaches for future Internet. One of possible applications used in overlay networks is live streaming based on Peer-to-Peer (P2P) multicasting. This paper deals with the problem of overlay networks dimensioning. In the problem - formulated as an Integer Program - access link capacities are to be selected with the objective to minimize the network cost expressed as the cost of access links. We solve the optimization problem using both CPLEX solver and our own heuristic algorithm that provides results close to optimal but with significantly lower execution time. Based on the proposed framework we examine the problem of how to design the overlay network to provide sufficient capacity for P2P multicasting. Using a simulator of a real P2P multicasting system we run extensive experiments on large networks (up to 100000 nodes) showing the dependency between the overlay network capacity and the performance of P2P multicasting streaming. Our results can be helpful in the process of overlay networks design and management.