Multicast routing infrastructure in ATM networks

Communication via computer networks has been growing rapidly. Technology ha s gained momentum. Industry, international organizations, and businesses ha ve started relying on networks to provide reliable, supportive, fast and ea sy methods to maintain transactions between their branches. Issues such as bandwidth, scalability, and efficiency became pertinent parameters that had to be configured at all costs. Also, information needs to be sent from one site to several sites. All of this is happening on packet switched network s. With the introduction of Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), the speed and quality of service of networks have increased tremendously. Still, the nec essity of sending one information to several sites instantaneously has been unresolved. This research paper broadens this perspective, and introduces a new architecture for the future that will enable multicast routers to rou te packets with the same guaranteed service of ATM. The proposed architectu re consists of ATM network and provides the standard multicast routing capa bilities to a router. This paper also reviews the current state of multicas t protocols, highlights the missing features, motivates the design, and dev elops the enhanced multicast protocols. A new architecture is based upon a hybrid system of distributed databases and a centralized server. Simulation and results of the proposed architecture are also described in detail. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.