Blocking of dynamic multicast connections

摘要

Multicast connections have a bandwidth saving nature. This means that a multicast connection in taking the form of a tree with streams merging at the nodes - requires much less capacity from the network links than a bunch of separate point-to-point connections providing the same connectivity. In this paper, we consider dynamic multicast connections that can be used to model, for example, TV or radio delivery on a telecommunications network, such as an ATM network with virtual circuits. We show how to calculate the blocking probabilities of requests to join such a tree. First, we consider the blocking probabilities occurring in a single link. The resulting model is able to capture heterogeneous capacity requirements for different multicast channels. Then we extend the results to a whole network using the reduced load approximation. The accuracy of the approximation method is studied by simulations.