Framework for multicast in hierarchical networks

We propose a framework for the creation and maintenance of multicast trees in hierarchical ATM networks. This framework aims at coping with an inherent difficulty of topology aggregation in such networks. The main idea of the proposed framework is to distribute the tree topology information among a set of hierarchical multicast group servers (MGS) nominated for each multicast tree, while keeping regions that do not have a member in the multicast group unaware of the tree. The framework can be employed with every multicast routing algorithm designed for non-hierarchical networks