Using Planetlab to Implement Multicast at the Application Level

Abstract

Application-layer multicast implements the multicast functionality at the application layer. The main goal of application-layer multicast is to construct and maintain efficient distribution structures between endhosts. In this paper we focus on the implementation of an application-layer multicast network using PlanetLab. We observe that the total time required to measure network latency over TCP is influenced dramatically by the TCP connection time. We argue that end-host distribution is not only influenced by the quality of network links but also by the time required to make connections between nodes. We provide several solutions to decrease the total end-host distribution time.