Multicasting algorithm in multimedia communication network

This paper presents a new heuristic algorithm called DDBMB (dynamic delay bounded multicast algorithm) to construct a minimum cost multicast tree. The heuristic depends on: (A) bounded delay along paths from source node to each destination node; (B) minimum cost of the multicast tree where the algorithm starts with the minimum delay tree and monotonically decreases the cost iteratively to construct a delay bounded minimum cost tree; and (C) dynamic multicast tree status which is maintained by updating the existing multicast tree when nodes in the network request join or leave. The construction of such constrained multicast tree is known as an NP-complete problem. Compared with other existing relative algorithms, the heuristic demonstrates a better average case behavior and can be very close to having a minimum cost depending on the delay bounds imposed.