Multicast tree construction algorithm for dynamic traffic on software defined networks

Abstract

Dynamic traffic of multicast communication in the Software Defined Network environment focused less though it is more natural and practical. In multicast communication, the traffic is dynamic due to the dynamic group memberships (i.e., participants join and leave the group anytime), which are not explored much in the previous research works. The multicast in dynamic traffic requires a method to handle dynamic group membership and minimum tree alteration for every join and leave of participants from the multicast group. This paper proposes a multicast tree construction algorithm, which considers receiving devices and network capability as base parameters to construct the multicast path. The proposed routing method uses Dijkstra’s Shortest Path algorithm for initial tree formation, identifies a multicast path, and processes the Shortest Path Tree to reduce the overall hop count and path cost. The multicast tree generated by the proposed enables the dynamic join and leaves of participating devices with reduced tree alteration using more common paths to reach the devices. The implementation and results show that the proposed method works efficiently in resource utilization with a reduced hop count and quality for multicast communication in static and dynamic scenarios. Also, the results demonstrate that the proposed method generates a stable common path for multicast communication.