Receiver-initiated multicasting with multiple QoS constraints

To support QoS for multicast with dynamic and distributed member joining, in this paper we present a receiver-initiated multicast protocol with multiple QoS constraints (RIMQoS). Assuming link-state information and QoS unicast routing protocol are available, a receiver computes a path to join the multicast tree rooted at the source. It then sends join request along the path to join the group. Our protocol specifies under what conditions the new member can be accepted into the group without affecting the QoS of other members and how to adjust the existing tree if necessary. It attempts to minimize the cost of the tree by letting a node join the tree via a low-cost path and may later switch to a higher-cost but more QoS stringent path when necessary. The proposed scheme allows fully distributed operation and supports multiple QoS metrics and requirements. It greatly reduces the number of messages and simplifies message processing to join members compared with some other approaches. Simulation results show that it is very efficient in finding low-cost solutions