Any Source Implicit Multicast (ASIMcast)

This paper proposes the ASIMcast (Any-Source Implicit Multicast) protocol which builds a bidirectional tree for routing of multicast traffic. ASIMcast includes features addressing issues which have been slowing down the deployment of multicast until now. ASIMcast does not use class D IP addresses to forward multicast data but normal unicast addresses instead. This prevents the collision of different multicast sessions, but mainly, it eases the deployment of multicast by having non-multicast routers (or domains) process multicast traffic as if it were unicast. For the same reason, multicast interdomain routing stops being an issue. ASIMcast also reduces routers memory usage by having routing states stored only at branching routers; non-branching routers are only involved when the tree is being optimized. Finally, ASIMcast is an efficient approach to provide several channels per multicast session with the possibility for the end-user to specify which channel it wants to receive. Simulation and implementation have proved the feasibility and the scalability of ASIMcast.