Multicast communication for scalable video application using IP option

In this paper, we are concerned with single source multicast communication models for scalable video application in IPv4 network using unicast protocol. We propose a new protocol called multicast datagram transfer protocol (MDTP) which utilizes the IP option field of the IPv4 header. MDTP enables routers responsible to replicate and forward MDTP packets, and to do control related tasks, such as adding or dropping video layers, and terminating flow to a client. Simulation results show that proposed protocol performs better on the average rate over another unicast based protocol called explicit multicast (Xcast). The proposed protocol also keeps only one information about the highest layer flowing through the router instead of addressing every layer when using the multicast protocol.