GSC: a generic source-based congestion control algorithm for reliable multicast

This paper presents a simple, generic source-based end-to-end multicast con gestion control (GSC) algorithm for reliable multicast transport (RMT) prot ocols. The algorithm is completely implemented at the source and leverages the reverse control information how in RMT protocols like PGM or RMTP. Spec ifically, it does not introduce any new control traffic or new fields in RM T protocol headers. It partially addresses the drop-to-zero problem by intr oducing a robust, adaptive time-filter based upon RTT (round trip time) est imates collected by observing NAK traffic. This solution allows it to scale far large multicast groups while being adaptive to congestion situation ch anges in any part of the tree. The algorithm is friendly to TCP in terms of competition for bandwidth shares. The scheme has minimal control traffic r equirements and weak RTT estimation requirements. (C) 2001 Published by Els evier Science B.V.