METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SIGNALING OF BUFFER CONTENT IN A PEER-TO-PEER STREAMING NETWORK

Methods, devices and computer program products for facilitating the selection of a sourcing peer in peer-to-peer (P2P) streaming environment are disclosed. These methods allow peers to select candidate source peers in an informed manner with low overhead and minimized complexity. These and other features are accomplished by signaling detailed information regarding the buffer contents to one or more requesting peers. This information includes the presence or absence of requested content segments and a listing of gaps in the requested content segments, which allow the requesting peers to select an appropriate sourcing peer. The selection of a sourcing peer is also effected by considering network connectivity and/or network congestion status between the sourcing and the requesting peers.