Supporting IP multicast streaming using overlay networks

In this paper we present our solution for providing IP Multicast on end systems in the Internet. The goal of the proposed solution is not to replace IP Multicast, but to provide an IP Multicast interface to applications on end systems in the current Internet environment, where IP Multicast is not available. Our solution, called Multicast Middleware, is a software, which is based on using Application Level Multicast (ALM) for transporting IP Multicast traffic. The use of the Multicast Middleware is transparent for applications on end systems, since our Multicast Middleware uses a virtual network interface to intercept native IP Multicast communication. In this paper we also present a performance evaluation of our Multicast Middleware. The results of this evaluation show that our Multicast Middleware is able to provide high bandwidth throughput to applications. This makes our Multicast Middleware a viable solution for supporting multimedia streaming services, etc.