Real-time multicast routing with efficient path selection for multimedia applications

Emerging multimedia technologies introduce the prevalent multicast transmis sion, and the multicast tree is determined using the time-invariant network parameters. This paper addresses the time-varying multicast tree problem a nd presents path selection heuristics for multicast routing to determine an alternative path for real-time applications. A network is partitioned into the optimal region, the disjoint region, and the edge cutset if a branch o f the multicast tree meets the un-guaranteed QoS condition. The path select ion heuristics operate during the multicast session phase to efficiently se lect an alternative routing path containing an edge in the edge cutset to c onnect the multicast tree again. The source-based heuristics PS-SPT finds t he path for minimal source-to-destination delay and the sharing-based heuri stics PS-DDMC for minimal total cost. These path selection heuristics can e fficiently provide solutions to keep the multicast transmission reliable. S imulation results: also show that tile proposed heuristics can provide effe ctive good solutions for real-time multicast transmission. PS-SPT can selec t a path with optimal source-to-destination delay and PS-DDMC can select a path with optimal total cost.