NeTS guest Alex Bikfalvi invited to the DTIC seminar

Alex Bikfalvi, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
Thursday, May 10, 2012, 3:30pm, 52.321

Host: Jaume Barcelo (NeTS)

Title: Peer-to-Peer Television for IMS-based Next Generation Networks

Abstract:
Peer-to-peer (P2P) video streaming has generated significant interest as a solution to deal with the scalability problem and reducing costs. Despite the success of Internet-based applications, the adoption has been limited for walled-garden Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) services. With the advent of the next-generation-networks based on the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) platform, P2P emerges as a possible alternative in situations where the traditional streaming mechanisms are not possible or economically feasible.

To this end, we propose a peer-to-peer television service architecture for the IMS, combining the centralized IMS control layer with a distributed P2P media layer. This approach exploits the upload capabilities of the user equipments, or peers, located in the customers' premise. In order to maintain compatibility with the existing standards, the greatest challenge is to accommodate the IMS signaling requirements with the decentralized and uncoordinated nature of peer participation. The main objective is to minimize the streaming interruptions determined by the normal user activity.

Biography:
Alex Bikfalvi is a doctoral student at the Telematics Engineering Department from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), Spain. He received a M.Sc. degree in telematic engineering from the same university in 2008 and an Engineering degree in electrical engineering (telecommunications) from the Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Information Technology at Universitatea Tehnică din Cluj-Napoca, Romania in 2006. His current research interests include distributed systems in general, and peer-to-peer (P2P) networks in particular, video streaming, and measurements on video content popularity and user activity.

Previously, he was a research assistant at the Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies in Networks (Institute IMDEA Networks), participating on several research projects including the CONTENT Network of Excellence, funded by the European Union under the VIth Framework Program, and BioGridNet, funded by regional government of the Autonomous Community of Madrid. Before joining the UC3M and the Institute IMDEA Networks, he worked as a software engineer for the professional services division of Alcatel-Lucent in Romania and Australia on large billing systems and network management solutions.