Abstract

Efficient multicast communication provides one of the best avenues for scaling bandwidth intensive applications. Current multicast routing mechanisms perform well for multicast groups which reach a longterm, steady-state distribution of membership. However, when the membership migrates throughout the network, current routing techniques may perform poorly. Recent techniques for IP multicast involve selection of a "core" router through which multicast communication is routed. We propose to adapt this routing scheme to efficiently support dynamic groups, by allowing the core to migrate. As part of our work we provide solutions to several problems that are more general, including (1) estimating multicast tree bandwidth using unicast information and (2) a variation on soliciting responses from a limited number of participants to avoid message implosion.

Citations