SomeCast: A Paradigm for Real-Time Adaptive Reliable Multicast
Date
1999-12-10
DOI
Authors
Yoon, Jaehee
Bestavros, Azer
Matta, Ibrahim
Version
OA Version
Citation
Yoon, Jaehee; Bestavros, Azer; Matta, Ibrahim. "SomeCast: A Paradigm for Real-Time Adaptive Reliable Multicast", Technical Report BUCS-1999-018, Computer Science Department, Boston University, December 10, 1999. [Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/2144/1795]
Abstract
SomeCast is a novel paradigm for the reliable multicast of real-time data to a large set of receivers over the Internet. SomeCast is receiver-initiated and thus scalable in the number of receivers, the diverse characteristics of paths between senders and receivers (e.g. maximum bandwidth and round-trip-time), and the dynamic conditions of such paths (e.g. congestion-induced delays and losses). SomeCast enables receivers to dynamically adjust the rate at which they receive multicast information to enable the satisfaction of real-time QoS constraints (e.g. rate, deadlines, or jitter). This is done by enabling a receiver to join SOME number of concurrent multiCAST sessions, whereby each session delivers a portion of an encoding of the real-time data. By adjusting the number of such sessions dynamically, client-specific QoS constraints can be met independently. The SomeCast paradigm can be thought of as a generalization of the AnyCast (e.g. Dynamic Server Selection) and ManyCast (e.g. Digital Fountain) paradigms, which have been proposed in the literature to address issues of scalability of UniCast and MultiCast environments, respectively.
In this paper we overview the SomeCast paradigm, describe an instance of a SomeCast protocol, and present simulation results that quantify the significant advantages gained from adopting such a protocol for the reliable multicast of data to a diverse set of receivers subject to real-time QoS constraints.