Comparison study and evaluation of overlay multicast networks

In contrast to one-to-one unicast transmission, multicast provides a one-to-many transmission paradigm. The overlay multicast has drawn a lot of attention as an alternative to IP multicast. In this paper, we compare four typical implementations of overlay multicast: Scattercast, Narada, overcast and ALMI. Several metrics are compared which are applicable to these projects, including relative delay penalty, normalized resource usage and stress. We evaluate those projects in a uniform network environment and discuss how the design approach and structure affects the performance.