Group size estimation for hybrid satellite/terrestrial reliable multicast

This paper addresses the problem of group size estimation for hybrid satellite/terrestrial multipoint communications. Estimators based on the maximum likelihood principle are investigated. These estimators assume that a Nack suppression mechanism is implemented at transport layer. The performance of these estimators is studied theoretically and via simulations. The integration of an appropriate group size estimator in a transport mechanism is finally considered

Equation-Based Congestion Control for Unicast and Multicast Data Streams

We believe that the emergence of congestion control mechanisms for relatively-smooth congestion control for unicast and multicast traffic can play a key role in preventing the degradation of end-to-end congestion control in the public Internet, by providing a viable alternative for multimedia flows that would otherwise be tempted to avoid end-to-end congestion control altogether. The design of good congestion control mechanisms is a hard problem, even more so for multicast environments where scalability issues are much more of a concern than for unicast. In this dissertation, equation-based congestion control is presented as an alternative form of congestion control to the well-known TCP protocol. We focus on areas of equation-based congestion control which were not yet well understood and for which no adequate solutions existed. Starting from a unicast congestion control mechanism which in contrast to TCP provides smooth rate changes, we extend equation-based congestion control in several ways. We investigate how it can work together with applications which can only operate in a very limited region of available bandwidth and whose rate can thus not be adapted to the network conditions in the usual way. Such a congestion control mechanism can also complement conventional equation-based congestion control in regimes where available bandwidth is too low for further rate reduction. When extending unicast congestion control to multicast, it is of paramount importance to ensure that changes in the network conditions anywhere in the multicast tree are reported back to the sender as quickly as possible to allow the sender to adjust the rate accordingly. A scalable feedback mechanism that allows timely congestion feedback in the face of potentially very large receiver sets is one of the contributions of this dissertation. But also other components of a congestion control protocol, such as the rate increase/decrease policy or the slow-start mechanism, need to be adjusted to be able to use them in a multicast environment. Our resulting multicast congestion control protocol was implemented in a simulation environment for extensive protocol testing and turned into a library for the use in real-world applications. In addition, a simple video transmission tool was built for test purposes that uses this congestion control library

Transport multipoint fiable à très grande échelle : intégration de critères de coût en environnement Internet hybride satellite / terrestre

Le travail effectué aborde la problématique des services de communication multipoints fiables à grande échelle. Dans ce contexte, la possibilité de déployer un tel service au moyen d'un satellite géostationnaire émettant en bande Ka est étudiée. L'emploi de la bande Ka introduit cependant une grande variabilité de la qualité de réception au niveau des utilisateurs finals, rendant nécessaire l'utilisation d'un protocole de transport mettant en oeuvre des mécanismes spécifiques. Selon une fonction de coût définie, la comparaison des solutions basées sur IP Multicast classiquement utilisées montre que l'utilisation d'une approche hybride couplant l'utilisation des réseaux satellites et terrestres est avantageuse. Le principe de la proposition, nommée Hybrid Satellite Terrestrial Reliable Multicast, consiste ainsi à choisir, en fonction de la taille du groupe, le moyen de diffusion le plus rentable - au vu d'une fonction de coût définie. Une description détaillée de la proposition inclut le comportement de la source et des récepteurs, et le format des messages échangés. Bien que le principe de cette approche soit simple, plusieurs points durs sont liés à la conception des mécanismes adéquats. Ces problèmes concernent notamment la gestion de la fiabilité (utilisation de code correcteur d'erreur ou FEC), l'estimation de taille de très grands groupes, et la reprise des erreurs par voie terrestre (utilisation de réseaux de pair-à-pairs). Ces mécanismes sont étudiés de manière unitaire afin de déterminer des configurations satisfaisantes, et pour détecter des problèmes de performances. Ces mécanismes étant définis, la proposition de transport a été globalement modélisée, de manière à obtenir une vérification fonctionnelle du service proposé. Le protocole a été décrit au moyen du profil UML temps réel TURTLE. Les résultats de validation ont été obtenus grâce à la chaîne d'outils TTool-RTL, et à CADP. ABSTRACT : This thesis studies issues related to the proposition of large scale reliable multipoint communication services. In this context, the possibility to use a geostationary satellite, emitting in the Ka band, to deploy such a service is analysed. However, the use of the Ka band introduces a high variability of quality of reception. Thus, the use of a transport protocol, implementing specific mechanisms, is mandatory. According to a cost function, the comparison of classical solutions, based on IP Multicast, show that a hybrid approach which uses the terrestrial and the satellite networks is advantageous. Consequently, a protocol named Hybrid Satellite Terrestrial Reliable Multicast is proposed. Its principle consists of choosing, depending on the group size, the more profitable network (i.e. terrestrial or satellite network) to transmit information. This choice is made according to a predefined cost function. A sharp description of the proposition, including the hosts' behaviours and the message set-up, is depicted. In spite of the simplicity of the approach, several obstacles appear when one tries to design appropriate mechanisms. These issues include reliability (use of forward error correction), large group size estimation, and terrestrial error recovery (use of peer-topeer networks). Those mechanisms are studied separately to determine satisfactory configurations, and to detect performance issues. After the definition of those mechanisms, the proposition is globally modelized in order to start the formal validation of the proposed service. The model is realized using the real-time UML profile TURTLE, and the validation results are obtained thanks to the TTool-RTL toolkit, and to Aldebaran

Adaptive delay-constrained internet media transport

Reliable transport layer Internet protocols do not satisfy the requirements of packetized, real-time multimedia streams. The available thesis motivates and defines predictable reliability as a novel, capacity-approaching transport paradigm, supporting an application-specific level of reliability under a strict delay constraint. This paradigm is being implemented into a new protocol design -- the Predictably Reliable Real-time Transport protocol (PRRT). In order to predictably achieve the desired level of reliability, proactive and reactive error control must be optimized under the application\u27s delay constraint. Hence, predictably reliable error control relies on stochastic modeling of the protocol response to the modeled packet loss behavior of the network path. The result of the joined modeling is periodically evaluated by a reliability control policy that validates the protocol configuration under the application constraints and under consideration of the available network bandwidth. The adaptation of the protocol parameters is formulated into a combinatorial optimization problem that is solved by a fast search algorithm incorporating explicit knowledge about the search space. Experimental evaluation of PRRT in real Internet scenarios demonstrates that predictably reliable transport meets the strict QoS constraints of high-quality, audio-visual streaming applications.Zuverlässige Internet-Protokolle auf Transport-Layer erfüllen nicht die Anforderungen paketierter Echtzeit-Multimediaströme. Die vorliegende Arbeit motiviert und definiert Predictable Reliability als ein neuartiges, kapazitäterreichendes Transport-Paradigma, das einen anwendungsspezifischen Grad an Zuverlässigkeit unter strikter Zeitbegrenzung unterstützt. Dieses Paradigma wird in ein neues Protokoll-Design implementiert -- das Predictably Reliable Real-time Transport Protokoll (PRRT). Um prädizierbar einen gewünschten Grad an Zuverlässigkeit zu erreichen, müssen proaktive und reaktive Maßnahmen zum Fehlerschutz unter der Zeitbegrenzung der Anwendung optimiert werden. Daher beruht Fehlerschutz mit Predictable Reliability auf der stochastischen Modellierung des Protokoll-Verhaltens unter modelliertem Paketverlust-Verhalten des Netzwerkpfades. Das Ergebnis der kombinierten Modellierung wird periodisch durch eine Reliability Control Strategie ausgewertet, die die Konfiguration des Protokolls unter den Begrenzungen der Anwendung und unter Berücksichtigung der verfügbaren Netzwerkbandbreite validiert. Die Adaption der Protokoll-Parameter wird durch ein kombinatorisches Optimierungsproblem formuliert, welches von einem schnellen Suchalgorithmus gelöst wird, der explizites Wissen über den Suchraum einbezieht. Experimentelle Auswertung von PRRT in realen Internet-Szenarien demonstriert, dass Transport mit Predictable Reliability die strikten Auflagen hochqualitativer, audiovisueller Streaming-Anwendungen erfüllt

Multicast Session Membership Size Estimation

We derive estimators and bounds that drive probabilistic polling algorithms for the estimation of the session size, r, of any potentially large scale multicast session. We base our analysis upon a mapping of polling mechanisms to the problem of estimating the parameter r of the binomial (r, p) distribution. From the binomial model, we derive an inter- val estimator for r, and we characterize the tradeoff between the estimator 's quality and its overhead in a manner readily matched to application requirements. We derive other estimators and bounds that enable applications to treat as a tunable parameter the confidence that they will not exceed their overhead limits. We also suggest revised estimators and other improvements for the mechanisms proposed by Bolot, Turletti, and Wakeman [1], and Nonnenmacher and Biersack [2], [3], [4]