MobiCast: A multicast scheme for wireless networks

In this paper, we propose a multicast scheme known as MobiCast that is suitable for mobile hosts in an internetwork environment with small wireless cells. Our scheme adopts a hierarchical mobility management approach to isolate the mobility of the mobile hosts from the main multicast delivery tree. Each foreign domain has a domain foreign agent. We have simulated our scheme using the Network Simulator and the measurements show that our multicast scheme is effective in minimizing disruptions to a multicast session due to the handoffs of the mobile group member, as well as reducing packet loss when a mobile host crosses cell boundaries during a multicast session.     

Dynamic agent-based hierarchical multicast for wireless mesh networks

We propose and analyze a multicast algorithm named Dynamic Agent-based Hierarchical Multicast (DAHM) for wireless mesh networks that supports user mobility and dynamic group membership. The objective of DAHM is to minimize the overall network cost incurred. DAHM dynamically selects multicast routers serving as multicast agents for integrated mobility and multicast service management, effectively combining backbone multicast routing and local unicast routing into an integrated algorithm. As the name suggests, DAHM employs a two-level hierarchical multicast structure. At the upper level is a backbone multicast tree consisting of mesh routers with multicast agents being the leaves. At the lower level, each multicast agent services those multicast group members within its service region. A multicast group member changes its multicast agent when it moves out of the service region of the current multicast agent. The optimal service region size of a multicast agent is a critical system parameter. We propose a model-based approach to dynamically determine the optimal service region size that achieves network cost minimization. Through a comparative performance study, we show that DAHM significantly outperforms two existing baseline multicast algorithms based on multicast tree structures with dynamic updates upon member movement and group membership changes.     

Multicast routing and bandwidth dimensioning in overlay networks

Multicast services can be provided either as a basic network service or as an application-layer service. Higher level multicast implementations often provide more sophisticated features and can provide multicast services at places where no network layer support is available. Overlay multicast networks offer an intermediate option, potentially combining the flexibility and advanced features of application layer multicast with the greater efficiency of network layer multicast. In this paper, we introduce the multicast routing problem specific to the overlay network environment and the related capacity assignment problem for overlay network planning. Our main contributions are the design of several routing algorithms that optimize the end-to-end delay and the interface bandwidth usage at the multicast service nodes within the overlay network. The interface bandwidth is typically a key resource for an overlay network provider, and needs to be carefully managed in order to maximize the number of users that can be served. Through simulations, we evaluate the performance of these algorithms under various traffic conditions and on various network topologies. The results show that our approach is cost-effective and robust under traffic variations.     

Analysis of tree‐based multicast routing in wireless sensor networks with varying network metrics

Wireless ad hoc and sensor networks are emerging with advances in electronic device technology, wireless communications and mobile computing with flexible and adaptable features. Routing protocols act as an interface between the lower and higher layers of the network protocol stack. Depending on the size of target nodes, routing techniques are classified into unicast, multicast and broadcast protocols. In this article, we give analysis and performance evaluation of tree‐based multicast routing in wireless sensor networks with varying network metrics. Geographic multicast routing (GMR) and its variations are used extensively in sensor networks. Multicast routing protocols considered in the analytical model are GMR, distributed GMR, demand scalable GMR, hierarchical GMR, destination clustering GMR and sink‐initiated GMR. Simulations are given with comparative analysis based on varying network metrics such as multicast group size, number of sink nodes, average multicast latency, number of clusters, packet delivery ratio, energy cost ratio and link failure rate. Analytical results indicate that wireless sensor network multicast routing protocols operate on the node structure (such as hierarchical, clustered, distributed, dense and sparse networks) and application specific parameters. Simulations indicate that hierarchical GMR is used for generic multicast applications and that destination clustering GMR and demand scalable GMR are used for distributed multicast applications. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A reliable multicast framework for light-weight sessions andapplication level framing

This paper describes scalable reliable multicast (SRM), a reliable multicast framework for light-weight sessions and application level framing. The algorithms of this framework are efficient, robust, and scale well to both very large networks and very large sessions. The SRM framework has been prototyped in wb, a distributed whiteboard application, which has been used on a global scale with sessions ranging from a few to a few hundred participants. The paper describes the principles that have guided the SRM design, including the IP multicast group delivery model, an end-to-end, receiver-based model of reliability, and the application level framing protocol model. As with unicast communications, the performance of a reliable multicast delivery algorithm depends on the underlying topology and operational environment. We investigate that dependence via analysis and simulation, and demonstrate an adaptive algorithm that uses the results of previous loss recovery events to adapt the control parameters used for future loss recovery. With the adaptive algorithm, our reliable multicast delivery algorithm provides good performance over a wide range of underlying topologies     

Alternate path routing for multicast

Current network-layer multicast routing protocols build multicast trees based only on hop count and policy. If a tree cannot meet application requirements, the receivers have no alternative. In this paper, we propose a general and modular architecture that integrates alternate path routing with the network's multicast services. This enables individual multicast receivers to reroute a multicast tree according to their needs, subject to policy restrictions. Our design focuses on the two primary components of this architecture - a loop-free path installation protocol and a scalable, distributed path computation algorithm. Based on a simulation study, we demonstrate that using alternate path routing enables receivers to find acceptable paths nearly as well as a link-state protocol, with much lower overhead. We also show that our approach scales to large networks and that performance improves as a multicast group grows in size.     

层次可靠多播的差错恢复实时性分析

本文通过建立层次可靠多播的抽象网络模型,以及引入等价概率链路的概念和方法,对层次可靠多播差错恢复的实时性进行了分析。建立模型的目的一是为了分析一个特定层次多播树的实时性能,另外也是为了建立某种最优多播传送树提供度量依据。     

一种分布式多源应用层多播方法

为满足以分布交互仿真为代表的大规模多数据源多播应用的通信需求,重点研究了大规模多源应用层多播问题,提出了大规模多源应用层多播问题模型。参考基于P2P覆盖网络的应用层多播方法Scribe和Bayeux,设计了一种适用于大规模多数据源多播应用的分布式多源应用层多播方法DMALMM。DMALMM采用随机邻居结点选择机制,使用反向寻径方法构建数据分发树。仿真试验表明,DMALMM方法的结果优于采用Scribe方法的结果,是一种有效的分布式多源应用层多播方法。     

基于蚂蚁算法的时延受限分布式多播路由研究

本文探讨了在高速包交换计算机网络中,具有端到端时延限制的多播路由问题。提出了一种新颖的基于蚂蚁算法的多播路由优化算法,该算法是完全分布式的。仿真实验表明,用该算法产生的多播路由树的费用比已存在的主要算法更好,并且适应于多播成员数的变化。     

Hierarchical path hunt in a broadband multirate circuit switchingfabric

A circuit switching fabric that switches narrowband (DS0), wideband (N×DS0, N×VT), and broadband (STS-N) signals embedded in SONET streams is studied. Based on the Clos (1953) strictly nonblocking principle, the fabric is strictly nonblocking if all path hunts are performed at the basic-rate (DS0 in our case) level. On the other hand, a hierarchical path hunt can speed up the path hunt process for a high bit-rate call, though the fabric will then lose its nonblocking property. We study several hierarchical path hunt algorithms and investigate how the hierarchy impacts the blocking probability. We also study the performance impact resulting from doing broadcast/multicast in a multirate circuit switching fabric. Our results provide insights into how hierarchical path hunts should be designed in a broadband multirate circuit switching fabric     

Multicast multi-granular grooming based on integrated auxiliary grooming graph in optical networks

In order to improve the bandwidth utilization efficiency and reduce the blocking probability for multicast requests in optical networks, the multicast traffic grooming approach was proposed to groom a lot of low-speed traffic to a few of high-speed light-trees. At the same time, in order to save the ports and the cost of optical cross-connect, the multicast waveband grooming approach was proposed to groom multiple light-trees to a few of waveband tunnels. However, the existing approaches all did not consider the joint performances of improving bandwidth utilization efficiency, reducing blocking probability and saving ports for multicast requests. Therefore, in this article, we propose a new multicast multi-granular grooming approach to perform the hierarchical sequential grooming to improve the joint performances based on a newly developed integrated auxiliary grooming graph (IAGG) that includes multiple wavelength integrated grooming graphs (WIGGs) and one waveband virtual topology layered graph (BVLG) to support both the multicast traffic grooming and multicast waveband grooming. In order to achieve the map of light-tree to the virtual topology layer in WIGG or BVLG, we present a light-segment map method, where a light-tree will be divided to several light-segments each of which will be independently mapped to the virtual topology layer. Since different definitions of blocking probability may lead to different objectives, we define two kinds of blocking probability, mean blocking probability of requests (MBPR) and mean blocking probability of users (MBPU). According to the two definitions of blocking probability, we propose two multicast multi-granular grooming heuristic algorithms, Heuristic Algorithm with minimizing MBPR and Heuristic Algorithm with minimizing MBPU based on IAGG. Simulation results show that the two proposed algorithms are both efficient and have better performances than traditional multicast grooming algorithm.     

A comparison of application-level and router-assisted hierarchical schemes for reliable multicast

One approach to achieving scalability in reliable multicast is to use a hierarchy. A hierarchy can be established at the application level, or by using router-assist. With router-assist we have more fine-grain control over the placement of error-recovery functionality, therefore, a hierarchy produced by assistance from the routers is expected to have better performance. In this paper, we test this hypothesis by comparing two schemes, one that uses an application-level hierarchy (ALH) and another that uses router-assisted hierarchy (RAH). Contrary to our expectations, we find that the qualitative performance of ALH is comparable to RAH. We do not model the overhead of creating the hierarchy nor the cost of adding router-assist to the network. Therefore, our conclusions inform rather than close the debate of which approach is better.     

固定组成员的应用层组播树不稳定问题

传统的组播树稳定性研究一般都是基于组播成员的动态变化的.但在应用层组播中,由于组播树的组成节点是应用层的端系统节点,组播成员可以通过欺骗以企图在组播树上占据更有利的位置,从而在组播成员不变时也会造成组播树的不稳定.本文建立了应用层组播节点的欺骗模型,并讨论了在固定组成员的情况下,节点欺骗引起的组播树不稳定问题.模拟实验结果表明,节点欺骗对应用层组播树的稳定性有极大的负面影响.     

On max-min fair congestion control for multicast ABR service in ATM

In the ATM Forum activities, considerable efforts have focused on the congestion control of point-to-point available bit rate (ABR) service. We present a novel approach that extends existing point-to-point (unicast) congestion control protocols to a point-to-multipoint (multicast) environment. In particular, we establish a unified framework to derive a multicast congestion control protocol for an ABR service from a given rate-based unicast protocol. We generalize a known necessary and sufficient condition on the max-min fairness of unicast rate allocation for a multicast service. Using this condition, we show that the resulting multicast protocol derived using our framework preserves the fairness characteristics of the underlying unicast protocol. The practical significance of our approach is illustrated by extending a standard congestion control mechanism for an ABR service to a multicast environment. The performance of the resulting multicast protocol is examined using benchmark network configurations suggested by the traffic management subworking group at the ATM Forum, and simulation results are presented to substantiate our claims     

A multicast mechanism for mobile networks

This letter proposes a multicast table approach to support GSM/UMTS multicast that minimizes the paging cost. The implementation and execution of the multicast tables are very efficient. The costs for updating these tables can be ignored compared with the costs of standard location update procedures. Furthermore, our mechanism can be implemented within the mobility databases without modifying the standard location update messages. We show that our mechanism always outperforms the existing GSM/UMTS multicast mechanisms     

A multicast mechanism for mobile multimedia messaging service

Based on the cell broadcast service architecture, this paper proposes an efficient multicast mechanism for the universal mobile telecommunications system to support multimedia messaging service (MMS). We define a new interface between the serving GPRS support node and the cell broadcast center to track the current locations of the multicast members. Then we describe the location tracking procedures (including attach, detach, and location update) of the multicast members and the multicast message delivery procedure. We use an analytic model to investigate the performance of our approach. This paper indicates that our MMS multicast mechanism outperforms the previous proposed approaches.     

Probabilistic reliable multicast in ad hoc networks

When striving for reliability, multicast protocols are most commonly designed as deterministic solutions. Such an approach seems to make the reasoning about reliability guarantees (traditionally, binary, “all-or-nothing”-like) in the face of packet losses and/or node crashes. It is however precisely this determinism that tends to become a limiting factor when aiming at both reliability and scalability, particularly in highly dynamic networks, e.g., ad hoc networks. Gossip-based multicast protocols appear to be a viable path towards providing multicast reliability guarantees. Such protocols embrace the non-deterministic nature of ad hoc networks, providing analytically predictable probabilistic reliability guarantees at a reasonable overhead.

This paper presents the Route Driven Gossip (RDG) protocol, a gossip-based multicast protocol designed precisely to meet a more practical specification of probabilistic reliability in ad hoc networks. Our RDG protocol can be deployed on any basic on-demand routing protocol, achieving a high level of reliability without relying on any inherent multicast primitive. We illustrate our RDG protocol by layering it on top of the “bare” Dynamic Source Routing protocol, and convey our claims of reliability and scalability through both analysis and simulation.     

Investigation of multicast‐based mobility support in all‐IP cellular networks

To solve the IP mobility problem, the use of multicast has been proposed in a number of different approaches, applying multicast in different characteristic ways. We provide a systematic discussion of fundamental options for multicast‐based mobility support and the definition and experimental performance evaluation of selected schemes. The discussion is based on an analysis of the architectural, performance‐related, and functional requirements. By using these requirements and selecting options regarding network architecture and multicast protocols, we identify promising combinations and derive four case studies for multicast‐based mobility in IP‐based cellular networks. These case studies include both the standard any‐source IP multicast model as well as non‐standard multicast models, which optimally utilize the underlying multicast. We describe network architecture and protocols as well as a flexible software environment that allows to easily implement these and other classes of mobility‐supporting multicast protocols. Multicast schemes enable a high degree of flexibility for mobility mechanisms in order to meet the service quality required by the applications with minimal protocol overhead. We evaluate this overhead using our software environment by implementing prototypes and quantifying handoff‐specific metrics, namely, handoff and paging latency, packet loss and duplication rates, as well as TCP goodput. The measurement results show that these multicast‐based schemes improve handoff performance for high mobility in comparison to the reference cases: basic and hierarchical Mobile IP. Comparing the multicast‐schemes among each other the performance for the evaluated metrics is very similar. As a result of the conceptual framework classification and our performance evaluations, we justify specific protocol mechanisms that utilize specific features of the multicast. Based on this justification, we advocate the usage of a source‐specific multicast service model for multicast‐based mobility support that adverts the weaknesses of the classical Internet any‐source multicast service model. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Scalable reliable multicast using multiple multicast channels

We examine an approach for providing reliable, scalable multicast communication, involving the use of multiple multicast channels for reducing receiver processing costs and reducing network bandwidth consumption in a multicast session. In this approach a single multicast channel is used for the original transmission of packets. Retransmissions of packets are done on separate multicast channels, which receivers dynamically join and leave. We first show that protocols using an infinite number of multicast channels incur much less processing overhead at the receivers compared to protocols that use only a single multicast channel. This is due to the fact that receivers do not receive retransmissions of packets they have already received correctly. Next, we derive the number of unwanted redundant packets at a receiver due to using only a finite number of multicast channels, for a specific negative acknowledgment (NAK)-based protocol. We then explore the minimum number of multicast channels required to keep the cost of processing unwanted packets to a sufficiently low value. For an application consisting of a single sender transmitting reliably to many receivers we find that only a small number of multicast channels are required for a wide range of system parameters. In the case of an application where all participants simultaneously act as both senders and receivers a moderate number of multicast channels is needed. Finally, we present two mechanisms for implementing multiple multicast channels, one using multiple IP multicast groups and the other using additional router support for selective packet forwarding. We discuss the impact of both mechanisms on performance in terms of end-host and network resources     

A media access and feedback protocol for reliable multicast over wireless channel

A link level reliable multicast requires a channel access protocol to resolve the collision of feedback messages sent by multicast data receivers. Several deterministic media access control protocols have been proposed to attain high reliability, but with large delay. Besides, there are also protocols which can only give probabilistic guarantee about reliability, but have the least delay. In this paper, we propose a virtual token-based channel access and feedback protocol (VTCAF) for link level reliable multicasting. The VTCAF protocol introduces a virtual (implicit) token passing mechanism based on carrier sensing to avoid the collision between feedback messages. The delay performance is improved in VTCAF protocol by reducing the number of feedback messages. Besides, the VTCAF protocol is parametric in nature and can easily trade off reliability with the delay as per the requirement of the underlying application. Such a cross layer design approach would be useful for a variety of multicast applications which require reliable communication with different levels of reliability and delay performance. We have analyzed our protocol to evaluate various performance parameters at different packet loss rate and compared its performance with those of others. Our protocol has also been simulated using Castalia network simulator to evaluate the same performance parameters. Simulation and analytical results together show that the VTCAF protocol is able to considerably reduce average access delay while ensuring very high reliability at the same time.