RFC 1458 (rfc1458) - Page 1 of 19
Requirements for Multicast Protocols
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Network Working Group R. Braudes
Request for Comments: 1458 S. Zabele
TASC
May 1993
Requirements for Multicast Protocols
Status of this Memo
This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does
not specify an Internet standard. Distribution of this memo is
unlimited.
Summary
Multicast protocols have been developed over the past several years
to address issues of group communication. Experience has
demonstrated that current protocols do not address all of the
requirements of multicast applications. This memo discusses some of
these unresolved issues, and provides a high-level design for a new
multicast transport protocol, group address and membership authority,
and modifications to existing routing protocols.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. The Image Communication Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.1 Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.2 Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. Review of Existing Multicast Protocols . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.1 IP/Multicast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.2 XTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.3 ST-II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.4 MTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4. Reliable Adaptive Multicast Service . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.1 The Multicast Group Authority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.1.1 Address Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.1.2 Service Registration, Requests, Release, and Group
Membership Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.2 The Reliable Adaptive Multicast Protocol (RAMP) . . . . . 11
4.2.1 Quality of Service Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.2.2 Error Recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.2.3 Flow Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4.3 Routing Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
4.3.1 Path Set-up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
4.3.2 Path Tear-down . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Braudes & Zabele