Adobe Flash To Eliminate Bandwidth Costs With P2P

http://torrentfreak.com/adobe-flash-to-eliminate-bandwidth-costs-with-p2p-100519/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Torrentfreak+%28Torrentfreak%29&utm_content=Twitter

by ukdm • 16 years ago

38 35 16 years ago

torrentfreak.com

othello• 16 years ago

If this delivers on its promise, couldn't it preserve Flash as a standard for video delivery online?

Cutting bandwidth costs for video websites could be a significant incentive to slow down HTML5 adoption and keep Flash in the game a little while longer.

someone_here4• 16 years ago

Unless HTML5 comes up with a UDP websocket protocol :D

That could be fun, but also possibly a huge security concern.

powrtoch• 16 years ago

Given Flash's record, isn't their implementation already a security concern?

est2• 16 years ago

> Unless HTML5 comes up with a UDP websocket protocol :D

And passive mode for WebSocket. And NAT traversal, and a central coordinate server, and fuck it, let's just use Flash.

dirkstoop• 16 years ago

It all really depends on the implementation.

None of the big players will want tech that doesn't give them enough control over minimum bandwidth/streaming performance.

For small players, putting some h264/ogg files up on Amazon cloudfront may cost some money, but it's extremely easy to set up right and offers extremely good and consistent performance for the money. P2P doesn't add much for distributors that don't get massive amounts of viewers.

Not saying it can't be a game changer somehow; a similar P2P strategy worked out pretty well for Skype. But given that it's all talk right now, I don't think it'll do much to slow down HTML5 adoption for a while.

billybob• 16 years ago

I'm not a huge fan of flash, but I do think peer-to-peer is a great way for the web to grow. Anything legitimate - making it harder for ISPs to say "it's only for pirates" and throttle it - is welcome in my book.

someone_here4• 16 years ago

Deep packet inspection is already way ahead of simple protocol blocking.

jrockway• 16 years ago

But, of course, it's easy to make your P2P packets look like anything you want, so deep packet inspection is just a way to waste electricity.

ErrantX3• 16 years ago

Actually, as someone who used to help run a mico-ISP, the problem with P2P for ISP's has little to do with piracy.

The major problem is it can absolutely rape networks - and it only takes one or two abusers to clog it up for everyone else.

In the end we simply kicked anyone who consistently ate up bandwidth with P2P - and network reliability improved no end.

boredguy82• 16 years ago

Help me understand this. Did you not have bandwidth caps?

I understand how 'one or two abusers' could clog up a network at, say, a university where there might not be per-port or per-device limits on bandwidth.

But I pay my $40/mo. for 10 down 1 up, and I never get more than that. How does, say, seeding WoW updates 'clog it up for everyone else'?

TeHCrAzY2• 16 years ago

That makes no sense. If you sold a service, you should have the capacity to provide it.

lukeqsee• 16 years ago

I wonder how many people will just "click yes" and end up not being able to watch video anymore. In the US of A, there are quite a few connections that are too slow on the upload side to handle P2P while streaming video.

The idea is worthy, but it needs masterful implementation. It takes a lot to balance the upload/download speeds. I am thankful it will be a opt-in. I just hope they throughly explain it to users before they click "yes."

someone_here4• 16 years ago

It's been coming for over a year: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/stratus/

est2• 16 years ago

I think it's refreshing because it will soon support intranet p2p, both live and on-demand.

On-demand p2p is easier than live p2p.

not_an_alien• 16 years ago

More information http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/stratus/

eli• 16 years ago

The beta of this technology is what powers chatroulette, right?

someone_here4• 16 years ago

Probably not. To enable this P2P, the user must accept a separate dialog window asking their permission.

anto1ne• 16 years ago

chatroulette uses stratus, or at least used it. When it became famous, it completely killed stratus server which was still in beta and not ready for massive usage. Everyone who happens to use stratus at this time complained.

So stratus is using p2p, but it still rely on Adobe servers and as far as I know there is no way to deploy your own stratus server yet.

ilike2• 16 years ago

Chatroulette uses Stratus and RTMP. RTMP, when Stratus fails because of firewall restrictions.

ryoshu3• 16 years ago

Stratus has been around for over a year on Adobe Labs. P2P video and audio was introduced in Flash Player 10. FP 10.1 introduces multi-cast P2P and the ability to send arbitrary data over the P2P connection.

braindead_in2• 16 years ago

How long till someone comes up with a Skype clone on flash?

ryoshu3• 16 years ago

There were a number of us that built a Skype clone right after the initial Stratus release. Video/audio/text chat works pretty well over P2P, but you still need a centralized server for the initial connection (Stratus) and a way to get around firewalls (STUN/TURN).

hackermom• 16 years ago

"Eliminate bandwidth costs" sounds like your ordinary, exaggerated, sensationalistic marketing trick - just air. I also wonder how this will fare in the US and the UK, where internet infrastructure on the upstream side of things is more or less non-existant.

DanBlake• 16 years ago

Stratus is non commercial. If you want to use p2p for a commercial project (show ads/charge for something), you need to pay adobe based on the minutes of usage (Seriously).

Its called adobe lifecycle afaicr.

ilike2• 16 years ago

Omegle and chatroulette, both use Adobe Stratus . Both sites depend on advertising revenue.

I dont think Adobe actively bans commercial projects/products from using Straus. Stratus is in beta, and Adobe doesnt provide any official support. So if you want to run a business that uses RTMFP with Adobe support, then LCCS (LiveCycle Collaboration Services) is the way to go.

ryoshu3• 16 years ago

And Flash Media Server 4 will have RTMFP when it is released. red5 should offer support soon after that.

gvb• 16 years ago

"...enable publishers to dramatically reduce bandwidth costs by outsourcing media distribution to users."

That is a very bad title. All it does is shift the bandwidth costs from the publishers to the users. BBC tried to do this and caused problems for their users. BBC was surprised by the problems they caused, everybody technical said "we told you so."

Adobe Flash To Eliminate Bandwidth Costs With P2P

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