Abstract-Interactive 3D content on Internet has yet become popular due to its typically large volume and the limited network bandwidth. Progressive content transmission, or 3D streaming, thus is necessary to enable real-time content interactions. However, the heavy data and processing requirements of 3D streaming challenge the scalability of client-server delivery methods. We propose the use of peer-to-peer (P2P) networks for 3D streaming, and argue that due to the non-linear access patterns of 3D content, P2P 3D streaming is a new class of applications apart from existing media streaming and requires new investigations.We also present FLoD, the first P2P 3D streaming framework that allows clients of 3D virtual globe or virtual environment (VE) applications to obtain relevant data from other clients while minimizing server resource usage. To demonstrate how FLoD applies to real-world scenarios, we build a prototype system that adapts JPEG 2000-based 3D mesh streaming for P2P delivery. Experiments show that server-side bandwidth usage can thus be reduced, while simulations indicate that P2P 3D streaming is fundamentally more scalable than client-server approaches.

We propose a fully-distributed peer-to-peer architecture to solve the scalability problem of Networked Virtual Environment in a simple and efficient manner. Our method exploits locality of user interest inherent to such systems and is based on the mathematical construct Voronoi diagram. Scalable, responsive, fault-tolerant NVE can thus be constructed and deployed in an affordable way.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

One of the most serious issues holding back the widespread of 3D contents on Internet has been their inaccessibility due to large data volume. Many compression and progressive transmission techniques, as well as format standards, have been proposed in recent years to make 3D streaming increasingly viable for the efficient and accessible delivery of 3D contents. However, existing proposals have yet to seriously address one of the most important issues in practical adoption -a system's scalability in terms of the number of concurrent users. We argue that due to 3D contents' large data volume and interactive nature, client-server architecture, with its inherently fixed resource availability and high cost, will not be suitable to support popular Internet-scale 3D streaming. On the other hand, peer-to-peer (P2P) architectures hold the promise of both scalability and affordability. In this position paper, we describe the potential promises and challenges in adapting 3D streaming to P2P networks, using multi-user networked virtual environment (NVE) as an example. We also propose Flowing LoD (FLoD), a scalable, distributed and fault-tolerant P2P 3D streaming mechanism, that is based on Voronoi-based Overlay Network (VON), a P2P overlay specifically designed for NVE applications.

In multi-user networked virtual environments such as Second Life, 3D streaming techniques have been used to progressively download and render 3D objects and terrain, so that a full download or prior installation is not necessary. As existing client-server architectures may not scale easily, 3D streaming based on peer-to-peer (P2P) delivery is recently proposed to allow users to acquire 3D content from other users instead of the server. However, discovering the peers who possess relevant data and have enough bandwidth to answer data requests is non-trivial. A naive query-response approach thus may be inefficient and could incur unnecessary latency and message overhead. In this paper, we propose a peer selection strategy for P2P-based 3D streaming, where peers exchange information on content availability incrementally with neighbors. Requestors can thus discover suppliers quickly and avoid time-consuming queries. A multi-level area of interest (AOI) request is also adopted to avoid request contention due to concentrated requests. Simulation results show that our strategies achieve better system scalability and streaming performance than a naive query-response approach.

ABSTRACT:The determination of the three-dimensional (3D) structure of a protein or peptide is a very important research problem in biological and medical sciences. Anfinsen's experiments (Science 1973, 181, 223) on renaturation of denatured proteins have shown that the native 3D structure of a (small) protein at low (room) temperatures is uniquely determined by its amino acid sequence, which suggests that it might be possible to determine the 3D structure of a protein from its amino acid sequence by pure computations. As a step toward that goal, in this article we present a simple approach for parallelization of multicanonical Monte Carlo simulations of proteins with continuous potentials. Our method is based on the parallel calculation of the protein energy function. The algorithm is tested by simulated annealing and multicanonical simulations of two small peptides, and known results are reproduced accurately. An acceptable degree of parallelization can be achieved in the simulation of Protein L using up to 30 PCs.