Systems and methods are described for using peer-to-peer collaboration to enhance streaming of multimedia content. A peer-paired pyramid streaming (P.sup.3S) architecture is introduced that is a hybrid of a client/server structure and a peer-to-peer structure. Clients are hierarchically organized and those that are in the same level are coupled to form peer-pairs. The peers in a peer-pair cooperate by utilizing a connection between them. Streaming is enhanced by allowing each peer to download different portions of a stream and sharing portions not in possession of the other. Error recovery is enhanced by allowing a peer to retrieve a dropped packet from its corresponding peer. A colored overlay is used with a P.sup.3S structure to improve streaming throughput.

 
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