AnchorNet: Bridging Live and Collaborative Streaming with a Unified Architecture

Collaborative streaming has emerged as a popular mode in modern live streaming applications. In the meanwhile of improving interactivity between broadcasters and viewers, it requires the live streaming architecture to smoothly switch between two streaming modes (e.g., traditional live streaming with a single broadcaster and collaborative streaming with at least two collaborative broadcasters). In this paper, we present AnchorNet, the new live streaming architecture for one of the most popular streaming applications. The core of AnchorNet is a unified stream path from the broadcaster to the viewer, enabling the host broadcaster of a live channel to switch between streaming modes within a continuous application session. It also proposes audio stream splicing techniques to further minimize unpleasant audio glitches during streaming mode switching. Practical deployment shows that AnchorNet can significantly reduce rebuffering during mode switching by over 60%, and increase user engagement by up to 3.83%.