Software Defined Multicast for Large-Scale Multi-Layer LEO Satellite Networks

The emerging large-scale low earth orbit (LEO) broadband satellite networks manifest great potentials in distributing videos across the globe via efficient multicast techniques. However, existing work only studied IP multicast (IPMC) for LEO constellations, which suffers from limited scalability and tree performance. In this paper, we employ the promising software defined multicast (SDM) techniques in large-scale LEO constellations to empower satellite-based Internet video distribution. We present a multi-layer rectilinear Steiner tree (ML-RST) construction algorithm for multicast routing in large-scale LEO constellations. We extend the spanning graph and edge substitution to three-dimensional (3D) scenes. Based on multi-layer spanning graphs and multi-layer edge substitution approaches, we manage to efficiently construct ML-RSTs with
${O}$
(
${n}$
log
${n}$
) complexity. Experimental results show that our approach can achieve an average 10% improvement in bandwidth saving compared with existing algorithms.