IP Multicast Channels: EXPRESS Support for Large-scale
Single-source Applications
Hugh W. Holbrook
and David R. Cheriton
Department of Computer Science, Stanford University
holbrook@dsg.stanford.edu,
cheriton@dsg.stanford.edu
Abstract
In the IP multicast model, a set of hosts can be aggregated into a group
of hosts with one address, to which any host can send. However, Internet
TV, distance learning, file distribution and other emerging large-scale
multicast applications strain the current realization of this model, which
lacks a basis for charging, lacks access control, and is difficult to scale.
This paper proposes an extension to IP multicast to support the channel
model of multicast and describes a specific realization called EXPlicitly
REquested Single-Source (EXPRESS) multicast. In this model, a
multicast channel has exactly one explicitly designated source,
and zero or more channel subscribers. A single protocol supports
both channel subscription and efficient collection of channel information
such as subscriber count. We argue that EXPRESS addresses the aforementioned
problems, justifying this multicast service model in the Internet.
To appear in the Proceedings of ACM
SIGCOMM '99, Cambridge, Massachusetts, September 1999.
Preprints of this paper are available: postscript
(562k), gzipped
postscript (127k), bzipped
postscript (106k).