Jouni Karvo, Jorma Virtamo, Samuli Aalto, Olli Martikainen,
Blocking of dynamic multicast connections.
4th INFORMS Telecommunications Conference , Boca Raton, Florida (Mar. 1998)

Abstract

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. Then we extend the results to a whole network using the Reduced Load Approximation. The accuracy of the approximation method is studied by simulations.

[Full paper (postscript)]

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