An Efficient Algorithm for Shortest Path Multicast Routing under Delay and Delay Variation Constraints

A new heuristic algorithm is proposed for constructing multicast tree for multimedia and interactive applications that require certain quality of services, QoS. We consider two main QoS parameters that are the delay and delay variation. The problem is formulated as constructing shortest path tree under delay and delay variation constraints. The tree is used to concurrently transmit packets from source to multiple destinations such that exactly one copy of any packet traverses the links of the multicast tree. This problem is known to be NP-Complete. The proposed heuristic algorithm solves this problem in polynomial time and gives near optimal tree. We first mention some related work in this area then we formalize the problem and introduce the new algorithm with the proof of its complexity. Other heuristic algorithms are examined and compared with the proposed algorithm via simulation.