Efficient multicast data transfer with congestion control using dynamic source channels

Abstract: The most efficient receiver-driven multicast congestion control protocols use dynamic channels. This means that each group has a cyclic rate variation with a continuously decreasing phase. Despite promising results in terms of fairness, using efficiently these dynamic groups could be a challenging task for application programmers. This paper presents a sequencer which maps out application data to dynamic groups in an optimal way. Multiple applications such as file transfer or video streaming, can use this sequencer, thanks to a simple API usable with any buffer containing the most important data first. To evaluate this solution, we designed a file transfer software using a FEC encoding. Results show the sequencer optimal behavior and the file transfer efficiency, as a single download generates only little more overhead than TCP . Moreover, download time is almost independent of the number of receivers, and is already faster than TCP with 2 competing downloads.