Efficient Multicast Labelling for OpenFlow-Based Switches

Multicast is a one-to-many transmission, which can efficiently save bandwidth resources. It heavily relies on the support of network routers to replicate a packet to multiple egress ports. Large routers usually store local multicast labels (LMLs) for ports of packet replication. Owing to the limited number of LML entries, LMLs could be compressed to cause bandwidth waste. In an OpenFlow-based software-defined network, a switch can obtain the traffic volume of each passing-through flow. Our scheme of LML compression uses the information of traffic volume to reduce bandwidth waste.