Multicasting streaming media to mobile users

Content distribution in general, and multicasting in particular, over a wired network to static hosts can be realized by placing proxies and gateways at several parts of the network. However, if the end hosts are mobile over heterogeneous wireless access networks, one needs to consider many operational issues such as network detection, handoff, join and leave latency, and desired level of quality of service, as well as caching and load balancing. This article surveys a set of protocols and technologies that offer multicast-based services for streaming multimedia in a mobile environment. It also brings forth some of the issues related to mobile content distribution in the wireless Internet that may be helpful during its deployment by application service providers.