Optimal Content Location in Multicast Based Overlay Networks with Content Updates

The architecture of overlay networks should support high-performance and high-scalability at low costs. This becomes more crucial when communication, storage costs as well as service latencies grow with the exploding amounts of data exchanged and with the size and span of the overlay network. For that end, multicast methodologies can be used to deliver content from regional servers to end users, as well as for the timely and economical synchronization of content among the distributed servers. Another important architectural problem is the efficient allocation of objects to servers to minimize storage, delivery and update costs. In this work, we suggest a multicast based architecture and address the optimal allocation and replication of dynamic objects that are both consumed and updated. Our model network includes consumers which are served using multicast or unicast transmissions and media sources (that may be also consumers) which update the objects using multicast communication. General costs are associated with distribution (download) and update traffic as well as the storage of objects in the servers. Optimal object allocation algorithms for tree networks are presented with complexities of O(N) and O(N ²) in case of multicast and unicast distribution respectively. To our knowledge, the model of multicast distribution combined with multicast updates has not been analytically dealt before, despite its popularity in the industry.     

Scattercast: an adaptable broadcast distribution framework

Internet broadcasting - the simultaneous distribution of live content streams to a large audience - has a number of interesting applications ranging from real-time broadcasts of audio/video streams for online concerts or sporting events to efficient and reliable large-scale software distribution. We identify three fundamental requirements for scalable broadcasting services: an efficient infrastructure for large-scale broadcasting, an ability to adapt the infrastructure to suit the requirements of a wide range of applications, and ease of deployment of the infrastructure. Although solutions such as the network-layer IP multicast approach and a slew of overlay distribution networks exist today, none of these technologies satisfactorily addresses all of the above concerns. In this paper, we argue that an application-customizable hybrid overlay is well suited to meet these challenges. To this end, we propose an architecture called scattercast that relies on a network of strategically located agents called ScatterCast proXies or SCXs. These agents collaboratively provide the broadcast service for a session. Clients locate a nearby SCX and tap into the session via that SCX. Scattercast constructs a hybrid overlay network composed of unicast links between SCXs that interconnect locally scoped multicast regions. Rather than define a single standardized service model for transmitting data on top of the overlay, scattercast builds a customizable transport framework that provides adaptability by leveraging application-defined semantics to drive the distribution of content. We demonstrate the ability of our architecture to provide efficient distribution via a set of simulation experiments. Finally, we present our experience with the adaptability of the framework by describing two applications, a real-time Internet radio and an online slide-presentation tool, both of which we have built on top of a prototype implementation of the architecture.Received: 15 March 2002, Accepted: 2 October 2002,     

On Bandwidth-Efficient Overlay Multicast

In this paper, we propose a new multicast delivery mechanism for bandwidth-demanding applications in IP networks. Our mechanism, referred to as multiple-destination overlay multicast (MOM), combines the advantages of IP multicast and overlay multicast. We formulate the MOM routing problem as an optimization problem. We then design an algorithm based on Lagrangian relaxation on our formulation and propose a distributed protocol based on the algorithm. For network operators, MOM consumes less network bandwidth than both IP multicast and overlay multicast. For users, MOM uses less interface bandwidth than overlay multicast.     

Effective distributed service architecture for ubiquitous video surveillance

Video surveillance systems are playing an important role to protect lives and assets of individuals, enterprises and governments. Due to the prevalence of wired and wireless access to Internet, it would be a trend to integrate present isolated video surveillance systems by applying distributed computing environment and to further gestate diversified multimedia intelligent surveillance (MIS) applications in ubiquity. In this paper, we propose a distributed and secure architecture for ubiquitous video surveillance (UVS) services over Internet and error-prone wireless networks with scalability, ubiquity and privacy. As cloud computing, users consume UVS related resources as a service and do not need to own the physical infrastructure, platform, or software. To protect the service privacy, preserve the service scalability and provide reliable UVS video streaming for end users, we apply the AES security mechanism, multicast overlay network and forward error correction (FEC), respectively. Different value-added services can be created and added to this architecture without introducing much traffic load and degrading service quality. Besides, we construct an experimental test-bed for UVS system with three kinds of services to detect fire and fall-incident features and record the captured video at the same time. Experimental results showed that the proposed distributed service architecture is effective and numbers of services on different multicast islands were successfully connected without influencing the playback quality. The average sending rate and the receiving rates of these services are quite similar, and the surveillance video is smoothly played.     

Robust load-balanced backbone-based multicast routing in mobile opportunistic networks

Mobile opportunistic network (MON) is an efficient way of communication when there is no persistent connection between nodes. Multicast in MONs can be used to efficiently deliver messages to multiple destination nodes. However, because multiple destination nodes are involved, multicast routing is more complex than unicast and brings a higher communication cost. Backbone-based routing can effectively reduce the network overhead and the complexity of routing scheme. However, the load of backbone nodes is larger than that of regular nodes. If the backbone node’s buffer is exhausted, it will have a significant impact on the performance of the routing scheme. Load balancing can improve the ability of backbone to deal with the change of network load, and backbone maintenance algorithm can provide backbone robustness. In this paper, we propose a robust load-balanced backbone-based multicast routing scheme in MONs. In the backbone construction algorithm, we transform the problem of backbone construction into a multi-objective optimization problem, and propose a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm-based backbone construction algorithm, namely LBMBC-MOEA algorithm. In addition, in order to increase the robustness of the backbone-based routing scheme, we propose a localized multicast backbone maintenance algorithm (MBMA) to deal with the buffer exhaustion of backbone nodes. When a backbone node’s residual buffer is insufficient, MBMA algorithm selects other nodes to replace the backbone node. The results on extensive simulations show that when considering the node buffer size constraints, compared with previous backbone-based multicast routing schemes, our proposed algorithm has better performance, and when the node’s residual buffer is insufficient, MBMA algorithm can significantly improve the performance of the backbone-based multicast routing scheme.     

Evolutionary algorithms for route selection and rate allocation in multirate multicast networks

In multirate multicasting, different users (receivers) in the same multicast group can receive service at different rates, depending on the user requirements and the network congestion level. Compared with unirate multicasting, this provides more flexibility to the users and allows more efficient usage of the network resources. In this paper, we simultaneously address the route selection and rate allocation problem in multirate multicast networks; that is, the problem of constructing multiple multicast trees and simultaneously allocating the rate of receivers for maximizing the sum of utilities over all receivers, subject to link capacity and delay constraints for high-bandwidth delay-sensitive applications in point-to-point communication networks. We propose a genetic algorithm for this problem and elaborate on many of the elements in order to improve solution quality and computational efficiency in applying the proposed methods to the problem. These include the genetic representation, evaluation function, genetic operators, and procedure. Additionally, a new method using an artificial intelligent search technique, called the coevolutionary algorithm, is proposed to achieve better solutions, and methods of selecting environmental individuals and evaluating fitness are developed. The results of extensive computational simulations show that the proposed algorithms provide high-quality solutions and outperform existing approach.     

面向QoS的域间实时流覆盖组播方法研究

针对跨域远程协作中的实时流通信质量问题,构建了实时流服务网格（LSSG）,这是一个可扩展的且面向用户QoS需求的覆盖组播通信中间件结构,LSSG服务由网络服务提供商策略部署的服务代理（SvB）提供。论文主要采用面向QoS的域间覆盖组播算法（QIOM）来组织SvB建立实时流组播服务树,根据用户服务质量请求提供跨自治系统的实时流组通信服务,将域间资源管理转变为流媒体应用的动态协同服务管理。仿真结果表明QIOM能有效地发现和提供QoS满意的覆盖服务及实现SvB间的覆盖流量负载平衡。     

Buffer-assisted on-demand multicast for VOD applications

Multicast communications is widely used by streaming video applications to reduce both server load and network bandwidth. However, receivers in a multicast group must access the multicast stream simultaneously, and this restriction on synchronous access diminishes the benefit of multicast because users in a video-on-demand service usually issue requests asynchronously, i.e., at anytime. In this paper, we not only formulate this streaming problem but also propose a new multicast infrastructure, called buffer-assisted on-demand multicast, to allow receivers accessing a multicast stream asynchronously. A timing control mechanism is integrated on intermediate routing nodes (e.g., routers, proxies, or peer nodes in a peer-to-peer network) to branch time-variant multicast sub-streams to corresponding receivers. Besides, an optimal routing path and the corresponding buffer allocations for each request must be carefully determined to maximize the throughput of the multicast stream. We prove that the time complexity to solve this routing problem over general graph networks is NP-complete, and then propose a routing algorithm for overlay networks to minimize server load. Simulation results demonstrate that buffer-assisted on-demand multicast outperforms many popular streaming methods.     

基于主机的跨网段多播系统设计

多播是一种重要的群组通信技术,在许多领域正得到越来越广泛的应用.传统的多播服务由于实现在TCP/IP协议的网络层,跨网段的多播需要路由器的支持.给出了一种基于主机端应用程序的跨网段多播解决方案,在不改变现有网络结构的基础上,为处于不同子网的主机提供了群组通信服务.详细阐述了该解决方案的设计思想以及适用情况.     

基于气象数据传输特征的智能组播技术研究

研究基于数据、信道和节点特征的气象水文数据智能组播问题,提出基于覆盖网络实现业务层组播的技术框架,研究特征提取和匹配技术,异网环境下业务层组播通信协议和交换技术,特征驱动的业务层组播智能调度方法等技术问题。     

组播协议在OPNET中的建模与仿真

该文以IP组播技术为重点,结合网络仿真软件OPENT Modeler,分析该软件环境下IP组播网络的建模机制,包括参考标准、组的管理、支持的应用、组播路由协议的选择,节点加入组播组与发送源发送组播数据的流程。以校园网视频会议和FTP传输应用为例,构建网络仿真模型,一方面比较单播与组播方式下的网络性能,分析了视频流量的发送情况、视频会议分组的端到端延时,FTP传输的响应时间,骨干网络点到点链路吞吐量;另一方面比较了组播方式采用共享树机制和由共享树切换到最短路径树在网络性能上的改进,包括分组延迟的降低、汇合点路由器上拥塞发生的减少等。同时,也对无线移动通信网络环境下的组播技术提出更多需要考虑的因素。     

A novel hybrid immune-based GA for dynamic routing to multiple destinations for overlay networks

Overlay networks play an important role in group communication applications in Internet. These applications require better efficiency in terms of delay, cost and load balancing. This paper presents an artificial immune system (AIS)-based hybrid genetic algorithm for the construction of Quality of Service (QoS) multicast tree among multicast service nodes in overlay network which optimizes path delivery, load-balancing variance and cost under bounded delay–degree constraint. This paper proposes an alternative AIS-based approach to handle the constraints instead of penalty function in overlay multicast routing problem. The clonal selection method of AIS is incorporated into the genetic algorithm (GA) to improve the diversity–convergence relationship which leads to optimized results. Proposed algorithm has the following features: (1) embedded problem specific local search function along with random point crossover to fine tune the search; (2) AIS principle is used to solve the constraints in GA; (3) clonal selection method to get the optimized results. Adaptable procedure is embedded into algorithm to handle the end user join/end user drop. Non-parametric statistical analysis has performed to show the significant difference among the proposed and existing algorithms. Simulation results reveal that our proposed algorithm produces better results in terms of cost, average path length, user rejection rate and convergence. Statistical analysis is also performed to assure the significance of the differences among the tested algorithms.     

Island Multicast: Combining IP Multicast With Overlay Data Distribution

Traditional overlay protocols use unicast connections to form delivery trees. While it can achieve global multicast across the Internet, it is not as efficient as IP multicast. In this paper, we integrate IP multicast into overlay data distribution to improve delivery efficiency. We investigate island multicast where unicast connections are used to connect multicast domains and IP multicast is used within multicast domains. We first explore a centralized island multicast protocol (termed CIM), which relies on a central server to construct a delivery tree. We then study a distributed protocol (termed DIM), where hosts can distributedly join islands and form a delivery tree. We study the key issues in both protocols. We also discuss how to apply these protocols to media streaming applications. We have evaluated both protocols on Internet-like topologies. We have also implemented a prototype for CIM and tested it on PlanetLab. The results show that our approaches can significantly im prove network performance as compared to pure overlay protocols. Our study shows that it is important to consider local multicast capability when designing overlay protocols.     

Ad hoc无线网络中的组播路由协议

由固定网络、基础结构移动网络和非基础结构无线网络组成的集成网络将成为未来互联网发展的趋势。同时,面向组计算和组通信的需求不断增长,要求未来的集成网络能为用户提供组播通信的功能。Adhoc无线网络是非基础结构无线网络的典型代表,具有带宽有限、拓扑结构易变和电池能源有限的特点,这些特性使得未来集成网络实现组播通信具有一定的挑战性。该文在分析Adhoc无线网络基本特性的基础上,综合评述了新近的Adhoc网络组播路由协议的研究现状,并对几种典型的Adhoc网络组播路由协议的特点进行了分类分析和比较,最后讨论了Adhoc无线网络组播路由协议的发展趋势和挑战。     

Nonblocking k-fold multicast networks

Multicast communication involves transmitting information from a single source to multiple destinations and is a requirement in high-performance networks. Current trends in networking applications indicate an increasing demand in future networks for multicast capability. Many multicast applications require not only multicast capability, but also predictable communication performance such as guaranteed multicast latency and bandwidth. In this paper, we present a design for a nonblocking k-fold multicast network, in which any destination node can be involved in up to k simultaneous multicast connections in a nonblocking manner. We also develop an efficient routing algorithm for the network. As can be seen, a k-fold multicast network has significantly lower network cost than that of k copies of ordinary 1-fold multicast networks and is a cost effective choice for supporting arbitrary multicast communication.     

可服务定制的流媒体应用层组播系统

面对组播应用难以在互联网中得到有效部署的难题,文章基于Overlay网络技术设计并实现了一个面向流媒体的应用层组播系统。该系统采用基于代理的服务模型,实现了接入控制、用户管理。针对接入网络固有的异构性问题,提出了一个基于XML表示的服务定制解决方案。     

IP组播网络监测系统MUL-Monitor的设计与实现

IP组播是将数据分发给一组参与者的非常有效的通信方式,有着廉价、高效的特点。组播网络监测对于增强组播性能、安全具有重要意义。为此,本文分析了组播监测的需求和功能要求,开发了组播监测系统MUL-Monitor,能够有效监测网络和组播应用。其结构包括收集处理数据模块、数据传输模块、分析模块、可视化模块。针对端到端组播监测的需求,MUL-Monitor支持多管理域,采用主动和被动相结合的端到端组播监测机制。测试和试用表明,能够满足组播网络和应用监测的基本需求。     

广域网VoD系统中的视频流组播传输机制设计

本文提出了一种在服务于广域网范围内、带代理服务器群的VoD系统中有效实现视频流组播的传输机制，其主要设计目的是借助代理服务器减轻中心服务器的工作负担以及削减主干网带宽资源消耗，并在各局域网内有效实现视频流组播，提高视频流的传输效率。我们用不同的传输技术响应“热门”视频节目点播和“冷门”视频节目点播，力争用尽量小的资源消耗提供最大范围的优质点播服务。     

Resilient overlay network for real-time interactive multimedia sessions in corporate networks

Real-time interactive multimedia communications are becoming increasingly useful for education, business, e-commerce and e-government, providing an enriched user experience in teleconferencing, e-meetings, distance training and product demonstrations. Large corporations are usually located at several sites, so real-time multipoint sessions within corporations are especially difficult. IP multicast is available or feasible within each site of an organization. Thus, corporate networks can be considered as various multicast-capable networks interconnected through a wide area network without multicast connectivity. This paper proposes a resilient self-managed overlay network to support real-time multipoint interactive sessions within corporate networks. The proposed overlay takes advantage of the configuration of corporate networks to self-organize and provide an efficient media delivery service, making use of multicast communications wherever available. Various self-healing techniques are implemented allowing for the continuity of ongoing sessions in spite of network disruptions and entity failures. Extensive simulations and tests have been carried out to assess the performance and resilience of the overlay facing several types of disruptions.