Extending ATM Networks for Efficient Reliable Multicast

One of the important features of ATM networks is their ability to support multicast communications. This facilitates the efficient distribution of multimedia information streams (such as audio and video) to large groups of receivers (potentially millions). Because ATM networks do not provide reliable delivery mechanisms, it is up to end systems to provide end-to-end reliability where it is needed. While this is straightforward for point-to-point virtual circuits, it is more difficult for one-to many and many-to-mamy virtual circuits. In this report, we propose some minimal extensions to the hardware of ATM switches that enables end systems to implement reliable multicast in a more efficient and scalable manner than is otherwise possible. Our approach makes the amount of work that must be done by any end system essentially independend of the number of multicast participants, while requiring no complex processing at the switches. We propose solutions for both one-to-many and many-to-many multicast virtual circuits. ... Read complete abstract on page 2.