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Content distribution for mobile Internet : a cloud-based approach
Li Z., Dai Y., Chen G., Liu Y., Springer International Publishing, New York, NY, 2016. 224 pp. Type: Book
Date Reviewed: Mar 30 2017

The distribution of content in a mobile Internet, with emphasis on the emergence of cloud-based technology, is the basis of a collection of articles by the main author, Zhenhua Li, written during his PhD and post-doctoral work. (The other authors were his advisors.)

The book is organized into four main parts, plus an introduction and conclusion: “Cloud-Based Cellular Traffic Optimization” (Part 2), “Cloud-Based Mobile Video Distribution” (Part 3), “Cloud-Assisted P2P Content Distribution” (Part 4), and “Cloud Storage-Oriented Content Distribution” (Part 5).

Part 1 introduces the topic and provides background information. Historically, wire- and fiber-based Internet capacity grew to meet demand. Meanwhile the cellular network grew to meet the demands of mobile voice traffic. With the introduction of smartphones such as the iPhone, the capacity of the cellular network has struggled to keep up with the demand. Thus, as the author observes in Part 2, data imposes a stress on cellular networks; the introduction of TrafficGuard, an application to reduce the system traffic (by about 36% while introducing a delay of less than 0.3 seconds), is described. TrafficGuard is compared to several other traffic reduction schemes.

As discussed in Part 3, the future demand for mobile video will continue to rise and dominate the mobile world. The dichotomy between popular and less well-known (or unpopular) videos is of interest. Popular videos can be distributed fairly easily, while unpopular videos require special handling techniques. While unpopular videos are much less requested, in total, they can claim a high draw on the system. Accordingly, the authors discuss a cloud-based mechanism to deliver these streams on a relatively economical basis. Also, there must be a way to let the user know if a requested video is not available. Since video content is stored in various formats and resolutions, and subscriber devices can display only subsets of all the formats, methods to transcode video on the fly are required. Transcoding on the receiver’s device is impractical, so this section describes a cloud transcriber to bridge the format/resolution gap.

Part 4 covers peer-to-peer (P2P) traffic, apart from the server-based content discussed in Part 3. Video teleconferencing and P2P video communication (Remember ATT’s Picture Phone?) can require a multiplicity of high-capacity channels. This section discusses methods to utilize techniques to employ the cloud to assist the distribution efficiency.

Cloud storage is becoming widespread. Several scenarios are considered in Part 5. The actual traffic usage in a cloud storage system can vary greatly and, depending upon algorithms employed, can be very inefficient. A technique to batch the updates to the cloud to reduce traffic overload is discussed.

This is an interesting work offering solutions to upcoming traffic problems in mobile networks. Ample references are given. Since the book is a collection of articles, there is no index. A short list of acronyms is provided.

Reviewer:  J. S. Edwards Review #: CR145153 (1706-0327)
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