A routing framework for multimedia multipoint communications in ATM networks

We develop a framework for routing multimedia multipoint information flows in ATM networks. This framework consists of a call model and a routing algorithm. The call model stems from the activities performed by standard bodies on the characterization of telecommunication services and on the separation between call control and connection control signalling. This model is used as a basis for the design of a multipoint routing algorithm, that is composed of a heuristic, that generates one point to multipoint path for each source in a group of communicating parties, and a set of criteria to combine such paths into a single one, for resource saving purposes. Two alternative multicast delivery mechanisms are proposed to implement the heuristic and their performance are evaluated by simulation on random graphs.