RapID is a P2P application that provides for scalable distribution of
data. A network of machines form a RapID overlay network. A sender machine
can then send data/content to all the other machines in a fast, scalable fashion.
Currently, the most popular use around, seems to be that of viewing large
video files simultaneously on many machines :)
RapID is agnostic of the content being disseminated. It can be used to distribute
any file. The file to be disseminated is input at a command line. The file is broken
into chunks and 'swarmed' into the overlay. On the receiving end, the chunks are
collected in the 'right-order' (using a 'sliding window') and sent to STDOUT.
The output can be piped into another program or redirected into a file (to be stored)
as per the users wish.
RapID is built using
ICE middleware. Currently, the implementation
is in Java but a C++ version (executables on Windows and MacOS-X) is in the works. Java runtime 5.0
J2SE 5.0
IS required to run RapID (sorry if you have to download this, but templates make life much easier for me :).
The zip bundle contains the required Java class files to run RapID. They also
contain the jar files of ICE. However, please visit the ICE download site
to make sure that you have the latest binaries.
The source files for RapID are available and are licensed as per
GNU-GPL . Please
send me an e-mail (deshpanm at uci edu) for the source-files and I'll
be glad to send them to you.
(1) Download the zip file and unzip it into any directory of your choosing
(say 'C:\temp\rapid'). You should see the files "rapid.jar" and "Ice.jar"
present in the directory now.
(2) Open a command prompt window:
Start->run->"cmd"
(3) Go into RapID's directory:
C:\> cd C:\temp\rapid
(4) Now, if you know about Java's classpath you can set it so that it can see the jar files
in the directory, or else :
RapID can be started in two different ways: (1) Lonely mode and (2) Friendly mode.
(5) In Lonely-mode, RapID is started with the following simple command:
C:\temp\rapid> java RapidPeer
The above works if your CLASSPATH variable is set correctly. If not, then
you can try this:
C:\temp\rapid> java -cp "Ice.jar;rapid.jar" RapidPeer
By default, RapID binds to port 20787
(First 5 digits of transcendental number: i^i) of the machine it is running on.
If you want to change this, you can pass the alternate port number on the command line, like this:
(java RapidPeer [port-number]).
(6) In friendly mode, it is assumed that you already know another machine's IP (and port)
on which RapID is already running. Then, you can join 'into the RapID network' by starting
RapID like this:
C:\temp\rapid> java RapidPeer [local-port] [remote-ip] [remote-port]
Download Mplayer and install it such that it is accessible from the command line.
Then RapID can be used to stream video/audio files in a simple way:
java RapidPeer [local-port] [remote-ip] [remote-port] | mplayer -cache 1024 -
The last "-" for mplayer is to instruct it to read bytes of the STDIN. The cache option
is needed to make mplayer work correctly. You can play around with the cache option but
1024 seems to do the job. Visit the
mplayer page
for more command line options.
RapID is still 'toy' software and carries no guarantee of any kind. It is
primarily intended for research purposes.
Development to add more features and make it more robust is continually in progress.
One feature that will soon be added is to make it possible to disseminate multiple
files without reinitializing the system.