CROWD-CDN: A cryptocurrency incentivized crowdsourced peer-to-peer content delivery framework

Content Distribution Network (CDN) is one of the most established technology for improving application and media service providers’ scalability, quality of service (QoS), and quality of experience (QoE). A hybrid content delivery network (CDN) with peer-to-peer (P2P) networking (CDN-P2P) is one strategy for further improving the scalability and QoS/QoE. However, CDN-P2P suffers from peer churning and free riding due to the inexistence of stimulating monetary incentives for the participating peers in the P2P overlay. Furthermore, to incentivize participating peers according to the peer contributions, it is not clear how much a peer contributes back to the overall content distribution capacity. To this end, this manuscript proposes a cryptocurrency incentivized crowdsourced P2P content delivery network (CROWD-CDN). CROWD-CDN monetizes the services of seeds supplying peers according to their contribution to the overall CDN content distribution capacity. CROWD-CDN employed blockchain-based cryptocurrencies and smart contracts for the monetization of peers. Additionally, CROWD-CDN utilizes the container-based virtualization of the peer nodes enabling CDN providers for transparent monitoring of peers’ contribution and securing the CDN contents at the peer in the isolated container. Lastly, we provide a proof of concept simulated testbed for the dimensioning of different variants of the proposed hybrid architecture and validating the provisioning of monetary incentives to peers.