An Active Layered Multicast Adaptation Protocol

We describe an active application in the field of multicast congestion control for real-time traffic. Our Active Layered Multicast Adaptation Protocol is a layered multicast congestion control scheme built on top of an Active Network infrastructure. It benefits from router support in order to obtain information about resources available and to perform the adaptation tasks at the places where shortage of resources occur. It supports heterogeneous receivers through the combination of layered multicast transmission with selective filtering and pruning of layers within the active nodes. Market-based resource management ideas are applied to achieve a resource utilisation level that represents an equilibrium between the user goals and the node operator goals. Our simulation results show that the protocol is feasible and provides adequate reactions to short term and persistent congestion, while keeping the amount of state and processing in the active nodes limited.