Hopcount in Application Layer Multicast Schemes

— Application Layer (AL) multicast emerged as a response to a slow deployment of IP multicast. However, the gain of AL multicast over unicast is questionable. Here, we investigate the efficiency of the two prominent protocols, MCAN and Scribe, in terms of the number of hops. We compare the efficiency of these algorithms to the efficiency of unicast and IP multicast via extensive simulations, as well as via measurements on the PlanetLab network. We introduce modifications to the MCAN algorithm that lead to a reduction in the hopcount. Finally, we demonstrate that the topology unawareness under certain conditions can make these schemes less efficient than unicast.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: NCA
• Authors: Milena Janic, Novi Ineke, Cempaka Wangi, Xiaoming Zhou, Piet Van Mieghem
• Keywords: IP Multicast, NCA 2005, Network Computing, Slow Deployment, Unicast