Multiple multicast tree allocation in IP network

Abstract

The multicasting is defined as the distribution of the same information stream from one to many nodes concurrently. There has been an intensive research effort to design protocols and construct multicast routing graphs for a single multicast group. In this paper, the multiple multicast tree allocation problem is discussed and algorithms are proposed to solve the congestion problem in the IP network. As the congestion measure the minimum residual capacity is considered. Two phase algorithm MMTA is investigated for multiple multicast tree allocation both for identical and different bandwidth requirement by the multicast groups. The central and distributed implementation of the multiple multicast tree is discussed for the deployment in the real IP network. The performance of the proposed MMTA is compared with other procedures. Computational results show that the two-phase MMTA outperforms other procedures. Approximately 3-7% improvement in the residual capacity is obtained by the MMTA. The solution gap from the upper bound by the well-known branch and bound is within 2-11% depending on the problem size. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.