Ip Multicast Using Quality of Service Enabled Overlay Networks Inauguraldissertation Der Philosophisch-naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät Der Universität Bern Vorgelegt Von Ip Multicast Using Quality of Service Enabled Overlay Networks Inauguraldissertation Der Philosophisch-naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät Der Universität Bern Vorgelegt Von

In this thesis, we will present solutions for end users on how to profit from efficient data transmission and dissemination using multicasting with Quality of Service (QoS) support. Multicasting is one of the most efficient mechanisms to distribute data from one sender to multiple receivers concurrently. Since IP Multicasting is not widely deployed in the Internet today, Overlay Multicast has been introduced to overcome this limitation. It is often also referred to as Application Layer Multicast (ALM). ALM is though not a standard as IP Multicast is, and many different ALM protocols targeted for different application scenarios exist. Therefore, we developed a bridge between IP Multicast and Overlay Multicast, called the Multicast Middleware. Now, end users can benefit from applications supporting the IP Multicast API, while still be able to use them through the Internet. This bridging also maps IP Multicast traffic to unicast packet flows which makes it easier to support QoS for multicasting. To provide the best service to end users, QoS mechanisms for ALM protocols are also required. The OM-QoS (Quality of Service for Overlay Multicast) framework aims to enable QoS for different ALM protocols, facilitating the creation of QoS supporting multicast trees. We will present protocol dependent as well as protocol independent solutions to support QoS for different ALM protocols. Finally, we present MCFTP (Multicast File Transfer Protocol), which enables collaborating data dissemination to profit from the benefits of multicast distribution. It facilitates using resources available in the network (routers) or at end systems (for ALM) more efficiently.