Multipoint communication: a survey of protocols, functions, andmechanisms

Group communication supports information transfer between a set of participants. It is becoming more and more relevant in distributed environments. For distributed or replicated data, it provides efficient communication without overloading the network. For some types of multimedia applications, it is the only way to control data transmission to group members. This paper surveys protocol functions and mechanisms for data transmission within a group, from multicast routing problems up to end-to-end multipoint transmission control. We provide a bibliography which is organized by topic     

Is layering, harmful? [remote procedure call]

Remote procedure call (RPC) mechanisms over the US Department of Defense transmission control protocol. (TCP) can produce behavior analogous to the silly window syndrome because of a mismatched interface between the socket and the TCP modules. The detection and diagnosis of the problem are addressed. Some pointers to a design approach that could avoid the problems of mismatched communication layers are provided     

Evaluating opportunistic networks in disaster scenarios

Forwarding data in scenarios where devices have sporadic connectivity is a challenge. An example scenario is a disaster area, where forwarding information generated in the incident location, like victims' medical data, to a coordination point is critical for quick, accurate and coordinated intervention. New applications are being developed based on mobile devices and wireless opportunistic networks as a solution to destroyed or overused communication networks. But the performance of opportunistic routing methods applied to emergency scenarios is unknown today. In this paper, we compare and contrast the efficiency of the most significant opportunistic routing protocols through simulations in realistic disaster scenarios in order to show how the different characteristics of an emergency scenario impact in the behaviour of each one of them.     

Quality-of-service routing for supporting multimedia applications

Several new architectures have been developed for supporting multimedia applications such as digital video and audio. However, quality-of-service (QoS) routing is an important element that is still missing from these architectures. In this paper, we consider a number of issues in QoS routing. We first examine the basic problem of QoS routing, namely, finding a path that satisfies multiple constraints, and its implications on routing metric selection, and then present three path computation algorithms for source routing and for hop-by-hop routing     

Providing incentives in providerless networks

This paper explores the extension of a model for the operation of an ad hoc mobile network to more general providerless networks, such as peer-to-peer systems. The model incorporates incentives for users to act as transit nodes on multi-hop paths and to be rewarded with their own ability to send traffic. The paper explores some of the trust questions that arise in this problem space and conjectures that the very structure of a peer organisation may have some hidden benefits for trust re-enforcement, that have not been previously explored (to our knowledge).     

Application-level Programmable Internetwork Environment

Future requirements for a broadband multimedia network are likely to be very different from those today. Three key changes are identified — rapid introduction of new services, dynamic customisation of services by clients, and minimal management overhead. Application-layer active networking, perhaps the most pragmatic and immediately realisable active network proposal, is a potential solution to all three. In the 'Management of Multiservice Networks' project, BT and its academic partners are developing key middleware components required to support application-layer active networking.     

The integrated services in the Internet: state of the art

This paper is about the evolution of the Internet from a simple data network into a true multiservice network that can support the emerging multimedia applications and their protocols with appropriate performance and costs. The real-time delivery and specific bandwidth requirements of these multimedia applications have created a need for an integrated services Internet in which traditional best effort datagram delivery can coexist with additional enhanced quality of service delivery classes. The integrated services Internet will be able to commit to meet bandwidth, packet loss, and delay specifications for individual data flows by using the resource reservation protocol together with appropriate packet forward scheduling policies