Abstract
Multicast communication protocols are not immune from failures as a result of packets being dropped due to a broken link or time out processes. Therefore, it is essential to understand how these failures can affect the overall performance of multicast protocols over the Internet. This paper compares the fault-tolerance effect of two reliable multicast protocols: pragmatic general multicast (PGM) and elastic reliable multicast (ERM) in a situation where a multicast-aware node fails and the sub-nodes will have to request a repaired packet. A simulation model is developed in such a way that faults are randomly created on nodes and link for a specified period of time and the fault-tolerance effect on the two multicast protocols is analyzed. The model developed for this paper repeats the simulation for different network size, the results obtained show that the ERM protocol is better than the PGM as the size of the network increases. This finding is key while considering the improvement (or upgrade) of existing multicast protocols. The result is also significant at the early stage of designing new multicast protocols as it provides useful information in allocating scarce resource that can be appropriated to improve other infrastructure in the network.
Highlights
Multicasting has made group communication easier and cheaper
This paper focuses on reliable multicast such as the pragmatic general multicast (PGM) and elastic reliable multicast (ERM), unreliable multicast is studied in another paper
Findings show that the stress level at the rendezvous point source (RPS) for ERM protocol is less than that of PGM protocol
Summary
Multicasting has made group communication easier and cheaper. The quality of multicasting can be enhanced if the fault-tolerance nature of the multicast protocols is studied and characterized such that its effect does not overwhelm and slow down the network. Multicast can be classified into two types, reliable and unreliable multicast. This paper focuses on reliable multicast such as the PGM and ERM, unreliable multicast is studied in another paper. Reliable multicast transport protocol are used by applications that required ordered, duplicatefree, multicast data delivery from multiple sources to multiple receivers. They can be used in one-to-many group communication
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