Multicasting with advantaged resources

Satellite links and other "advantaged" resources are increasingly becoming available in tactical networks. When such resources are used to multicast data, significant reductions in traffic and delay are possible, though not guaranteed. Furthermore, use of these resources is relatively expensive and should be efficiently allocated. This paper presents ARDUP, the Advantaged Resource Discovery and Use Protocol, which re-forms the existing terrestrial route to include the advantaged resource in an efficient manner. It addresses the cost-effectiveness of the advantaged resource by introducing a method of global cost assessment of the multicast paths. This assessment provides a measure of the relative benefit - if any - that using the advantaged resource will bring. The paper also describes the admission control mechanism by which access to the advantaged resource is managed. Results from an OPNET simulation study are then presented to illustrate the performance and benefits of the protocol.