Overview

The use of the Internet as a channel for the delivery of streaming (audio/video) media is paramount. This makes the characterization and synthetic generation of streaming access workloads of fundamental importance in the evaluation of Internet and streaming delivery systems.  Over the last few years, while many studies have considered the characterization of HTTP workloads and synthesis of HTTP request streams, only very few studies focused on characterizing streaming media workloads, and none has tried to generate representative streaming media workloads.

GISMO is a tool set developed at Boston University in the Computer Science department. It enables the specification of a number of streaming media access characteristics, including object popularity, temporal correlation of request, seasonal access patterns, user session durations, user inter-activity times, and variable bit-rate (VBR) self-similarity and marginal distributions. The embodiment of these characteristics enables the generation of realistic and scalable request streams for use in the benchmarking and comparative evaluation of Internet streaming media delivery techniques. Recently, GISMO has been extended to generate live streaming media access workloads, based on a hierarchical characterization.
 
 
Publications

We have two papers that describe the model and implementation of GISMO. More papers related to streaming media access are available from the home pages of the authors.

	Shudong Jin and Azer Bestavros. GISMO: A Generator of Internet Streaming Media Objects and Workloads. A preliminary version appears in ACM SIGMETRICS Performance Evaluation Review, November, 2001.
	Eveline Veloso, Virgilio Almeida, Wagner Meira, Azer Bestavros, and Shudong Jin. A hierarchical characterization of a live streaming media workload. In Proceedings of ACM SIGCOMM Internet Measurement Workshop, 2002.

 
 
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THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
 

	Version 1.0 package (.tar archive file) Comments: This version generates workloads of stored media objects access. Some users have requested a prelimenary version from me. Since then, the package has been modified a little.
	Version 1.1 package (.tar archive file) Comments: This version generates workloads of live media access. The workloads are generated based on a different model.

 
People and Group
 

	Azer Bestavros
	Shudong Jin
	WING: Web and InterNetworking Group

 
 
About this page

This page is created by Shudong Jin, last modified June 2002.