Research on the Application Layer Multicast Protocols

The application layer multicasts, which need not do any modification on the present network infrastructure, can fulfill the multicast function on the basis of virtual overlay networks. The end-system in the application layer multicast group can undertake the tasks such as duplicating packages, routing and data forwarding. In this way it becomes a convenient and flexible method to deploy multicast services on the Internet This paper discusses the application layer multicast protocols by means of the overlay topology construction, in which three methods called tree-first, mesh-first and hierarchy are applied.