Abstract
This paper presents a P2P-based multimedia streaming system, called Live2006, to provide a scalable, robust, and high available live streaming distance education service. Based on the concept of Application Layer Multicast, a tree-based structure is designed to connect the peers, and the peers share the receiving streaming to reduce network traffic. A high level quality of service is maintained even a significant number of individuals are watching the same distance education program. It also enables all users to share their study experiences and achieve ""peer-to-peer learning"". Live2006 also provides the streaming services for users located behind the firewall or users using the private IP addresses behind an NAT (Network Address Translation). Thus, users can easily access the distance education programs through their devices, including the resource limited handset devices, in anytime and anywhere. Live2006 also supports IPv6 protocol for next generation Internet infrastructure. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.