Multicast delivery using explicit multicast over IPv6 networks

This article presents an alternative scheme, called Xcast6+, which is an extension of explicit multicast (Xcast) for an efficient delivery of multicast datagrams over IPv6 networks. The mechanism incorporates MLDv2 and a new control plane into existing Xcast6 (Xcast for IPv6) and not only does it provide the transparency of traditional multicast schemes to sources and recipients, but it also enhances the routing efficiency in networks. Since intermediate routers do not have to maintain any multicast states, it results in a more efficient and scalable mechanism to deliver traditional multicast datagrams. Furthermore, the seamless integration of Xcast6+ in Mobile IPv6 can support multicast efficiently for mobile nodes over IPv6 networks by avoiding tunnel avalanches and tunnel convergence. Our simulation results show distinct performance improvements of our approach. This approach can reduce network resources in many "medium size groups" multicast, particularly as the number of recipients in a subnet increases (i.e., "subnet-dense groups").