A layer-2 multicast forwarding policy for a generic Real-time Ethernet system

This paper describes the layer-2 based forwarding rules for a Real-time Ethernet (RTE) proposed in, and its applications to multicast streaming. The proposed approach is based on topologically addressed structures, and maintain all the route information within the multicasted frame header. This allows having no database in the MAC bridges, which reduces the forwarding delays, caused by address searching and processing efforts. Also the paper presents a routing technique to control the flooding effect of multicast traffic. A model-driven development approach has been adopted to verify the concept by using simulation technique, and a PC-based emulation technique is proposed for further investigation.