Differentiated-service-based inter-domain multicast routing: enhancement of MBGP

There has recently been active research on quality of service (QoS) multicasting. Very few, however, address QoS inter-domain multicasting. In this paper, we present a differentiated service (DS) extension to MBGP (Multicasting Border Gateway Protocol), which is an extension of BGP-4 (Border Gateway Protocol 4) to support multicasting. With limited modification to the MBGP, we extend it to support two prospective differentiated service protocols: expedited forwarding (formally premium service) and assured forwarding (formerly assured service). Detailed mechanisms of the DS extension are described. Performance is evaluated through extensive simulation of real-network scenarios (including nodes joining/leaving), supporting CBR, VBR, and best-effort traffic flows requesting different classes of service. We believe that the work presented here is significant to the advancement of the next-generation Internet supporting DS communications.