An efficient algorithm for selection and management of Island multicast

Although IP multicast techniques were proposed a long time ago and despite of their advantages, they are still not widely deployed due to the absence of multicast support in some routers/domains and inter-domain management issues. On the other hand, in the most of recent internet applications, where the average consumed bandwidth is measured by hundreds of Kbits per second and where the support of large-scale distribution is important, the IP multicast becomes more than a necessity. In this paper, we propose a new approach for extending the scope of IP multicast in overlay applications. We selected some overlay nodes to be used as fan-out multicast nodes and then created an IP multicast islands around each fan-out node. These multicast islands are connected with each other using unicast overlay links. This selection of fan-out nodes is based on a distributed version of K-means algorithm and GNP (Global Network Positioning), a distributed technique to measure the distance between nodes. We further propose a preventive fault tolerance mechanism for packet loss across islands. Finally, the simulation results verify the optimality of our approach in terms of link stress minimization and end-to-end delay reduction.