Abstract: A content providing system and method for a streaming service are provided. The content providing system is connected to at least one of wired/wireless terminals and a wide area server. The content providing system includes at least one of local servers and a manage node. The local servers store contents received from the wide area server and provide context index information. The managing node manages the context index information by the contents stored in the local servers and the wide area server, and determines a storing location of a corresponding content from the context index information if a content request message is received from a terminal. Also, the managing node transmits the requested content to the terminal through a wired/wireless Internet network by transmitting a content-transmission message to local servers having the corresponding content or the wide area server.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for providing a peer-to-peer (P2P) based streaming service are provided. The method provides a streaming service in a peer-to-peer (P2P) network comprising a plurality of peers. That is, a receiving peer requests a plurality of transmitting peers having contents for a streaming service among peers in the P2P network to transmit the contents. Then, the receiving peer receives identical portions of the same content from the plurality of transmitting peers at the same time. After receiving, the receiving peer provides a streaming service for the received content from a first transmitting peer among the plurality of transmitting peers to a user.