NLM: network-based layered multicast for traffic control of heterogeneous network

Layered multicast has been considered to be an efficient approach for copin g with the network heterogeneity. Receiver-driven Layered Multicast (RLM) a nd its variants suggest that every receiver adjusts the reception level bas ed on the packet loss rate. In this paper we propose a scheme called networ k-based layered multicast (NLM) scheme, which enhances the packet scoping m echanism employed in current multicast backbone (MBone). It makes use of th e TTL bits and TOS bits in IP header, and packets are filtered in the route rs using both the measured and predicted traffic condition. This allows the network quickly and efficiently adapts to the traffic condition. We evalua te and compare the scheme with the receiver-driven schemes using Network Si mulator for a 33-node network topology with realistic bandwidths. The simul ation reveals that the proposed NLM scheme substantially improves the stabi lity and fairness of the RLM scheme for multicast sessions, while it displa ys comparable performance to the RLM with Priority (RLMP) scheme. For mixed type traffic of multicast and TCP sessions, it outperforms both the scheme s, (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.