Method and apparatus for peer-to-peer streaming of layered content

1. A method, said method comprising:

receiving buffer maps of neighbor peers;

measuring serving rates from said neighbor peers;

measuring serving rates to said neighbor peers;

requesting a unit of data from one of said neighbor peers responsive to information in said buffer maps of said neighbor peers at a rate responsive to said serving rate from said one of said neighbor peers;

receiving incoming requests for units of data;

sorting said incoming requests into a plurality of queues, wherein there are an entitled queue and an excess queue for each neighbor peer, wherein a receiving rate of a neighbor peer is the sum of an entitled rate and an excess rate, and wherein the excess rate is the average of the serving rates from all peers times a cost factor t and the entitled rate is the serving rate from said neighbor peer times (1−t);

selecting one of said incoming requests to serve responsive to said serving rates to said neighbor peers corresponding to said incoming request, wherein entitled queues have priority over excess queues;

updating said queues; and

selecting a new neighbor peer.

2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising storing said buffer maps.

3. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising storing said serving rates from said neighbor peers.

4. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising storing said serving rates to said neighbor peers.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said requesting act further comprises:

determining which of said neighbor peers has said unit of data responsive to said information in said buffer maps;

updating a list of said neighbor peers from which said unit of data can be requested; and

selecting said one of said neighbor peers from said list of said neighbor peers.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said second selecting act further comprises:

determining a replacement index for each neighbor peer; and

removing one of said neighbor peers responsive to said replacement index.

7. An apparatus operating as a peer in a peer-to-peer network, said apparatus comprising at least: one processor, one random access memory; and one input/output interface, said at least one processor being configured to:

receive buffer maps of neighbor peers;

measure serving rates from said neighbor peers;

measure serving rates to said neighbor peers;

request a unit of data from one of said neighbor peers responsive to information in said buffer maps of said neighbor peers at a rate responsive to said serving rate from said one of said neighbor peers;

receive incoming requests for units of data;

sort said incoming requests into a plurality of queues, wherein there are an entitled queue and an excess queue for each neighbor peer, wherein a receiving rate of a neighbor peer is the sum of an entitled rate and an excess rate, and wherein the excess rate is the average of the serving rates from all peers times a cost factor t and the entitled rate is the serving rate from said neighbor peer times (1−t);

select one of said incoming requests to serve responsive to said serving rates to said neighbor peers corresponding to said incoming request wherein entitled queues have priority over excess queues;

update said queues; and

select a new neighbor peer.

8. The apparatus according to claim 7 , wherein said at least one processor is further configured to:

store said buffer maps in said at least one random access memory.

9. The apparatus according to claim 7 , wherein said at least one processor is further configured to:

store said serving rates from said neighbor peers in said at least one random access memory.

10. The apparatus according to claim 7 , wherein said at least one processor is further configured to:

store said serving rates to said neighbor peers in said at least one random access memory.

11. The apparatus according to claim 7 , wherein said at least one processor is configured to request by being further configured to:

determine which of said neighbor peers has said unit of data responsive to said information in said buffer maps;

update a list of said neighbor peers from which said unit of data can be requested; and

select said one of said neighbor peers from said list of said neighbor peers.

12. The method according to claim 7 , wherein said at least one processor is configured to select a new neighbor peer by being further configured to:

determine a replacement index for each neighbor peer; and

remove one of said neighbor peers responsive to said replacement index.