Hybrid Overlay Multicast Simulation and Evaluation

The Scalable Adaptive Multicast Research Group (SAM RG) within the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) is chartered to define a hybrid multicast protocol that opportunistically combines overlay multicast protocols and native multicast protocols to create and maintain hybrid multicast trees. A design for SAM hybrid multicast trees has been proposed that leverages the AMT multicast tunneling protocol. Evaluating hybrid multicast protocols is difficult for two reasons. The simulation environment must combine both a scalable overlay and a detailed network layer that includes routers with native multicast support. Suitable metrics are needed to compare the tree quality with pure overlay multicast trees. This paper presents our approach to simulating and evaluating hybrid multicast protocols.