A Distributed Bandwidth Partitioning Scheme for Concurrent Network-Coded Multicast Sessions

In this paper, we address the problem of supporting receivers that require different sessions of a multicast application based on their desired rates. We present a distributed bandwidth partitioning scheme to share the bandwidths on the links in such a way that data rate requirements of each receiver in the multicast is met. The salient features of our scheme are: (i) each receiver can simultaneously request up to their individual maximum flow rates; (ii) each node uses only local link bandwidth and flow information to partition the outgoing link bandwidth; (iii) if link bandwidths change due to cross traffic, each node can quickly adapt and repartition link bandwidths to deliver data rates requested by receivers. We show through simulations and experiments over several overlay networks at the University of Wisconsin that all receiver get their requested rates. We also integrate our scheme into a multimedia streaming application to demonstrate a usage case scenario and further evaluate its effectiveness.