Heikki Kokkinen

Techno-Economic Modeling of Post-Payment Copyrights

A post-payment copyright system is used to legalize copyrighted music files which user has obtained illegally. We compare a post-payment copyright system to an online music shop by analyzing three scenarios using techno-economic modeling and risk analysis. According to our analysis, a post-payment copyright system is potentially a more profitable business than an online shop when no media replacement is required. Our research is a continuation to the trend of studies suggesting peer-to-peer networks as a part of a viable business model for media distribution.

Modular, service-oriented API for peer-to-peer middleware

This paper presents a general-purpose API to P2P network middleware. The design proposes modular, service oriented solution to this problem. The paper demonstrates that while the proposed P2P API is fairly complex because it tries to support every known P2P technology, the footprint of the middleware can be quite small because of the modular, incremental nature of the API middleware. The paper also demonstrates that although service-oriented API differs significantly from the traditional, monolithic APIs, it can be implemented in small footprint on top of a non service-oriented, commercial platform, the Series60.

Forensics for Detecting P2P Network Originated MP3 Files on the User Device

This paper presents how to detect MP3 files that have been downloaded from peer-to-peer networks to a user hard disk. The technology can be used for forensics of copyright infringements related to peer-to-peer file sharing, and for copyright payment services. We selected 23 indicators, which show peer-to-peer history for a MP3 file. We developed software to record the indicator values. A group of selected examinees ran the software on their hard disks. We analyzed the experimental results, and evaluated the indicators. We found out that the performance of the indicators varies from user to user. We were able to find a few good indicators, for example related to the number of MP3 files in one directory.

Towards distributed service provisioning

This paper studies Internet protocols and services which is currently server based and which show good potential to be distributed to client terminals. Server based services require installation, operation and maintenance. A finite upper limit on the number of servers leads to potential performance bottlenecks. There are environments and situations in which server infrastructure is not available. Client-only based services enable terminal manufacturers to deploy new services fast and flexibly to the customers without depending on the operator server infrastructure investments. As research material we use Internet trace statistics, Sourceforge application categories and popularity, available popularity rankings of Internet services and a literature study of distributed services. The methodology employed is to model the network as a single-hop adhoc WLAN network, which has only terminal clients of equal capabilities and which does not have any external connectivity to the public Internet or any other infrastructure network. The services which technically work in this adhoc WLAN environment can also be extended to the public Internet by taking the advantage of peer-to-peer or other overlay networks. The services are evaluated based on their use case, if there are alternative solutions providing the same service, and according to the technical feasibility in mobile devices. For each selected potential distributed service solution the requirements are defined and the related research problem is stated. If a known solution exists, it is described and evaluated. The common building blocks needed for the service distribution are described based on the service solutions of the selected services. Finally, the main gaps on the path towards fully distributed service provisioning are identified.