Kc. Almeroth et Mh. Ammar, MULTICAST GROUP-BEHAVIOR IN THE INTERNETS MULTICAST BACKBONE (MBONE), IEEE communications magazine, 35(6), 1997, pp. 124-129
The multicast backbone (MBone) is a network overlaying the global Inte
rnet and designed to support multipoint applications. In this article,
the authors first give an overview of the development and architectur
e of the current MBone. One important characteristic of the MBone is i
ts reliance on IP multicast which allows receivers to join and leave g
roups asynchronously. The authors describe the Mlisten data collection
tool that was created to provide a mechanism for capturing informatio
n about when members join and leave a multicast group. Using data coll
ected with Mlisten, the authors present statistics about some of the M
Bone sessions they monitored. Results are provided for key parameters
including multicast participant interarrival times and participant dur
ations, multicast tree size and characteristics, and intersession rela
tionships. Collecting data about MBone usage can improve our understan
ding of how multicast communication and real-time protocols are being
used today.