An asymptotically optimal push-pull method for multicasting over a random network

We consider allcast and multicast flow problems where either all of the nodes or only a subset of the nodes may be in session. Traffic from each node in the session has to be sent to every other node in the session. If the session does not consist of all the nodes, the remaining nodes act as relays. The nodes are connected by undirected links whose capacities are independent and identically distributed random variables. We study the asymptotics of the capacity region (with network coding) in the limit of a large number of nodes, and show that the normalized sum rate converges to a constant almost surely. We then provide a decentralized push-pull algorithm that asymptotically achieves this normalized sum rate without network coding.Comment: 13 pages, extended version of paper presented at the IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT) 2012, minor revision to text to address review comments, to appear in IEEE Transactions in information theor

О применении грациозной разметки в MPLS-сетях

Рассмотрены графовые модели на основе грациозных разметок, используемых при решении оптимизационных задач в современных сетях передачи данных.Мета статті. Провести дослідження, яке рередбачає розробку ефективного способу пересилання пакетів, що сприяє поліпшенню показників часу життя пакета і підвищенню надійності роботи мережі. Методи. На основі повної топологічної карти мережі, що моделюється графом G=(V, E), обчислюється кістякове дерево мінімальної ваги. Для цього може бути застосований протокол OSPF, який визначає маршрут найменшої вартості в заданій метриці – мінімальна затримка. Далі активізується алгоритм граціозної розмітки, що призначає маршрутизаторам мітки, які в свою чергу породжують мітки каналів зв’язку. Приєднання або видалення учасників групи при багатоадресній маршрутизації реалізовано за використання алгоритму перенумерації вершин граціозної гусениці. Результат. Розроблено ефективний спосіб транспортування пакетів, що сприяє поліпшенню показників часу життя пакета і підвищенню надійності роботи мережі.Purpose. To conduct studies to optimize the process of traffic transmission over the network with MPLS functions. Methods. Based on the complete topological map of the network, modeled by the graph G=(V, E), a spanning tree of minimum weight is calculated. For this purpose, the OSPF protocol can be applied, which determines the route of the lowest cost in the given metric – the minimum delay. Next comes the graceful labelling algorithm, which assigns tags to the routers, which in their turn generate the labels of the communication channels. Joining or deleting members of a group with multicast routing is implemented using the algorithm of renumbering vertices of a graceful caterpillar. Results. Development of an effective packet forwarding method that would improve the packet lifetime parameters and increase the reliability of the network operation

Content Distribution by Multiple Multicast Trees and Intersession Cooperation: Optimal Algorithms and Approximations

In traditional massive content distribution with multiple sessions, the sessions form separate overlay networks and operate independently, where some sessions may suffer from insufficient resources even though other sessions have excessive resources. To cope with this problem, we consider the universal swarming approach, which allows multiple sessions to cooperate with each other. We formulate the problem of finding the optimal resource allocation to maximize the sum of the session utilities and present a subgradient algorithm which converges to the optimal solution in the time-average sense. The solution involves an NP-hard subproblem of finding a minimum-cost Steiner tree. We cope with this difficulty by using a column generation method, which reduces the number of Steiner-tree computations. Furthermore, we allow the use of approximate solutions to the Steiner-tree subproblem. We show that the approximation ratio to the overall problem turns out to be no less than the reciprocal of the approximation ratio to the Steiner-tree subproblem. Simulation results demonstrate that universal swarming improves the performance of resource-poor sessions with negligible impact to resource-rich sessions. The proposed approach and algorithm are expected to be useful for infrastructure-based content distribution networks with long-lasting sessions and relatively stable network environment

Live media production: multicast optimization and visibility for clos fabric in media data centers

Media production data centers are undergoing a major architectural shift to introduce digitization concepts to media creation and media processing workflows. Content companies such as NBC Universal, CBS/Viacom and Disney are modernizing their workflows to take advantage of the flexibility of IP and virtualization. In these new environments, multicast is utilized to provide point-to-multi-point communications. In order to build point-to-multi-point trees, Multicast has an established set of control protocols such as IGMP and PIM. The existing multicast protocols do not optimize multicast tree formation for maximizing network throughput which lead to decreased fabric utilization and decreased total number of admitted flows. In addition, existing multicast protocols are not bandwidth-aware and could cause links to over-subscribe leading to packet loss and lower video quality. TV production traffic patterns are unique due to ultra high bandwidth requirements and high sensitivity to packet loss that leads to video impairments. In such environments, operators need monitoring tools that are able to proactively monitor video flows and provide actionable alerts. Existing network monitoring tools are inadequate because they are reactive by design and perform generic monitoring of flows with no insights into video domain. The first part of this dissertation includes a design and implementation of a novel Intelligent Rendezvous Point algorithm iRP for bandwidth-aware multicast routing in media DC fabrics. iRP utilizes a controller-based architecture to optimize multicast tree formation and to increase bandwidth availability in the fabric. The system offers up to 50\% increase in fabric capacity to handle multicast flows passing through the fabric. In the second part of this dissertation, DiRP algorithm is presented. DiRP is based on a distributed decision-making approach to achieve multicast tree capacity optimization while maintaining low multicast tree setup time. DiRP algorithm is tested using commercially available data center switches. DiRP algorithm offers substantially lower path setup time compared to centralized systems while maintaining bandwidth awareness when setting up the fabric. The third part of this dissertation studies the utilization of machine learning algorithms to improve on multicast efficiency in the fabric. The work includes implementation and testing of LiRP algorithm to increase iRP\u27s fabric efficiency by implementing k-fold cross validation method to predict future multicast group memberships for time-series analysis. Testing results confirm that LiRP system increases the efficiency of iRP by up to 40\% through prediction of multicast group memberships with online arrival. In the fourth part of this dissertation, The problem of live video monitoring is studied. Existing network monitoring tools are either reactive by design or perform generic monitoring of flows with no insights into video domain. MediaFlow is a robust system for active network monitoring and reporting of video quality for thousands of flows simultaneously using a fraction of the cost of traditional monitoring solutions. MediaFlow is able to detect and report on integrity of video flows at a granularity of 100 mSec at line rate for thousands of flows. The system increases video monitoring scale by a thousand-fold compared to edge monitoring solutions

Study of architecture and protocols for reliable multicasting in packet switching networks

Group multicast protocols have been challenged to provide scalable solutions that meet the following requirements: (i) reliable delivery from different sources to all destinations within a multicast group; (ii) congestion control among multiple asynchronous sources. Although it is mainly a transport layer task, reliable group multicasting depends on routing architectures as well. This dissertation covers issues of both network and transport layers. Two routing architectures, tree and ring, are surveyed with a comparative study of their routing costs and impact to upper layer performances. Correspondingly, two generic transport protocol models are established for performance study. The tree-based protocol is rate-based and uses negative acknowledgment mechanisms for reliability control, while the ring-based protocol uses window-based flow control and positive acknowledgment schemes. The major performance measures observed in the study are network cost, multicast delay, throughput and efficiency. The results suggest that the tree architecture costs less at network layer than the ring, and helps to minimize latency under light network load. Meanwhile, heavy load reliable group multicasting can benefit from ring architecture, which facilitates window-based flow and congestion control. Based on the comparative study, a new two-hierarchy hybrid architecture, Rings Interconnected with Tree Architecture (RITA), is presented. Here, a multicast group is partitioned into multiple clusters with the ring as the intra-cluster architecture, and the tree as backbone architecture that implements inter-cluster multicasting. To compromise between performance measures such as delay and through put, reliability and congestion controls are accomplished at the transport layer with a hybrid use of rate and window-based protocols, which are based on either negative or positive feedback mechanisms respectively. Performances are compared with simulations against tree- and ring-based approaches. Results are encouraging because RITA achieves similar throughput performance as the ring-based protocol, but with significantly lowered delay. Finally, the multicast tree packing problem is discussed. In a network accommodating multiple concurrent multicast sessions, routing for an individual session can be optimized to minimize the competition with other sessions, rather than to minimize cost or delay. Packing lower bound and a heuristic are investigated. Simulation show that congestion can be reduced effectively with limited cost increase of routings

ON MULTIMEDIA CONTENT DELIVERY AND MULTICASTING

Multimedia content now contribute to a huge amount of the Internet traffic due to the popularity and availability of anytime anywhere Internet connection. Unlike the circuit-switched telephone network - in which necessary resources are reserved for communication between two parties at the time the connection is established, a packet-switched network, like the Internet, only guarantees the reachability when the connection between two parties is established. In other words, the end-to-end delay and available bandwidth between two hosts depend on the amount of traffic on the network. The communication paths between the participating hosts are also determined by the routing policies and hence are not under control of the participating hosts. Hence how to improve the performance of delivering multimedia content on the Internet has become an interesting research topic.In this dissertation, we consider the problem of delivering multimedia contents using multicast wherein a group of participants are participating in the same com- munication session. We assume the networks are flexible such that the end hosts can specify the communication paths. A few examples of this type of networks are overlay networks and IPv6 network with source routing support. This problem is addressed from both routing and network traffic perspectives.First, we assume a two-layer approach which includes a well-provisioned service overlay network and the regular Internet. The participants in the multimedia group communication can take the advantage of the service overlay network by connecting to the nodes in the service overlay network through the Internet. We consider two major assignment problems - Server and Client Assignment Problem (SCAP, Client- Server model) and Client Assignment Problem (CAP, Peer-to-Peer model) as well as several variants of these problems. These problems are NP-hard and we have developed polynomial-time heuristic algorithms to assign the participants to appropriate service nodes such that some real-time constraint(s) are satisfied and the number of service nodes involved are minimal. Integer programming (IP) models for solving these problems are also developed for performance evaluation purpose. Empirical results show that the solution quality of the proposed algorithms compares favorably with the optimal ones obtained from the execution of IP models, while keeping the execution times significantly low.We have also considered the Multi-stream Multi-source Multicast Routing Prob- lem ( MMMRP). Given a network and a set of multicast sessions, each with one or more sources and multiple destinations. The goal of MMMRP is to determine mul- tiple multicast tree for these multicast sessions on the given network in such a way that the overall residual bandwidth on the links that are shared among the trees is maximized. We prove that MMMRP is NP-hard and apart from providing an IP formulation, we have also provided a heuristic algorithm MMForests which runs in polynomial-time. We compared and contrasted the performance of MMMRP with known algorithms for the multicast tree packing problem. Our exhaustive empirical evaluations show that our heuristic has a very low execution-time while achieving the optimal residual bandwidth. In addition, our heuristic is very scalable as it is able to produce results for networks with thousands of nodes, unlike the other ones which are based on Steiner tree heuristics

Roteamento multicast multisessão: modelos e algoritmos

Multicast Technology has been studied over the last two decades and It has shown to be a good approach to save network resources. Many approaches have been considered to solve the multicast routing problem considering only one session and one source to attending session‘s demand, as well, multiple sessions with more than one source per session. In this thesis, the multicast routing problem is explored taking in consideration the models and the algorithms designed to solve it when where multiple sessions and sources. Two new models are proposed with different focuses. First, a mono-objective model optimizing residual capacity, Z, of the network subject to a budget is designed and the objective is to maximize Z. Second, a multi-objective model is designed with three objective functions: cost, Z and hops counting. Both models consider multisession scenario with one source per session. Besides, a third model is examined. This model was designed to optimize Z in a scenario with multiple sessions with support to more than one source per session. An experimental analysis was realized over the models considered. For each model, a set of algorithms were designed. First, an ACO, a Genetic algorithm, a GRASP and an ILS algorithm were designed to solve the mono-objective model – optimizing Z subject to a budget. Second, a set of algorithm were designed to solve the multi-objective model. The classical approaches were used: NSGA2, ssNSGA2, SMS-EMOA, GDE3 and MOEA/D. In addition, a transgenetic algorithm was designed to solve the problem and it was compared against the classical approaches. This algorithm considers the use of subpopulations during the evolution. Each subpopulation is based on a solution construction operator guided by one of the objective functions. Some solutions are considered as elite solutions and they are considered to be improved by a transposon operator. Eight versions of the transgenetic algorithm were evaluated. Third, an algorithm was designed to solve the problem with multiple sessions and multiple sources per sessions. This algorithm is based on Voronoi Diagrams and it is called MMVD. The algorithm designed were evaluated on large experimental analysis. The sample generated by each algorithm on the instances were evaluated based on non-parametric statistical tests. The analysis performed indicates that ILS and Genetic algorithm have outperformed the ACO and GRASP. The comparison between ILS and Genetic has shown that ILS has better processing time performance. In the multi-objective scenario, the version of Transgenetic called cross0 has shown to be statistically better than the other algorithms in most of the instances based on the hypervolume and addictive/multiplicative epsilon quality indicators. Finally, the MMVD algorithm has shown to be better than the algorithm from literature based on the experimental analysis performed for the model with multiple session and multiple sources per session.A tecnologia multicast tem sido amplamente estudada ao longo dos anos e apresenta-se como uma solução para melhor utilização dos recursos da rede. Várias abordagens já foram avaliadas para o problema de roteamento desde o uso de uma sessão com apenas uma fonte a um cenário com múltiplas sessões e múltiplas fontes por sessão. Neste trabalho, é feito um estudo dos modelos matemáticos para o problema com múltiplas sessões e múltiplas fontes. Dois modelos matemáticos foram propostos: uma versão multissessão mono-objetivo que visa a otimização da capacidade residual sujeito a um limite de custo e uma versão multiobjetivo com três funções-objetivo. Ambos os modelos levam em conta o cenário multissessão com uma fonte por sessão. Além disso, um estudo algorítmico foi realizado sobre um modelo da literatura que utiliza múltiplas fontes por sessão. Três conjuntos de algoritmos foram propostos. O primeiro conjunto trata do problema mono-objetivo proposto e considera as abordagens ACO, Genético, GRASP e ILS. O segundo conjunto consiste dos algoritmos propostos para o modelo multiobjetivo. Foram projetados os seguintes algoritmos: NSGA2, ssNSGA2, GDE3, MOEA/D e SMS-EMOA. Além disso, foi projetado um algoritmo transgenético com subpopulações baseadas em operadores de criação de solução direcionados por objetivos do problema. Também foi utilizado o conceito de soluções de elite. No total, 8 versões do algoritmo transgenético foram avaliadas. O terceiro conjunto de algoritmos consiste da heurística MMVD proposta para o modelo da literatura com múltiplas fontes por sessão. Esta heurística é baseada no uso de diagramas de Voronoi. O processo experimental foi realizado com amplo número de instâncias configuradas de modo a avaliar diferentes situações. Os resultados foram comparados utilizando métodos estatísticos não-paramétricos. A análise final indicou que o ILS e o Genético obtiveram resultados muito similares, entretanto o ILS possui melhor tempo de processamento. A versão cross0 do algoritmo transgenético obteve o melhor resultado em praticamente todos os cenários avaliados. A heurística MMVD obteve excelentes resultados sobre algoritmos da literatura