07/01/1996 09:00 AM
Computer Engineering
Point-to-multipoint communication is becoming a major need to handle multimedia applications and co-operative work. Multicast protocols are being designed in order to extend reliable transfer of information to multipoint configurations. Such protocols have to cope with several issues such as implosion of control packets that limits scalability or error management mechanisms to provide a reliable delivery of information to the end user. Most of these protocols are sensitive to the network environments and the parameters used to control the exchange of information. It is therefore mandatory to properly size these parameters in order to operate the protocol efficiently. Performance analysis is then required. We consider a multicast algorithm akin to the bucket algorithm proposed in XTP3.6. We develop a queueing model that allows us to represent the key features of the proposed protocol, and assist in properly sizing its parameters. We discuss the model accuracy, and analyze the results as a function of various network environments.
