RMFP : The Reliable Multicast
Framing Protocol
The Reliable Multicast Framing Protocol is a project that is designed to
provide an ALF [1] based framework for reliable multicast.
The general problem of reliable multicast is seen in the increased complexity
in comparison to unicast caused by application requirements,
scalability requirements, heterogeneity of network and receivers and congestion
control.
Although there has been intensive research efforts in reliable multicast
protocols in the recent years, no protocol was developed that can provide
all functionality required. The RMFP approach to reliable multicast is
a environment that allows the integration of different protocols into its
structure.
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For applications, RMFP will provide a common API to all of the different
integrated protocols.
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Protocol developers can use RMFP's structures and API to reduce the protocol
implementation effort.
Current state of the project
At the moment RMFP is developed at INRIA,
Sophia-Antipolis in the RODEO
project. Since RMFP is still under research, there are no stable specifications
available.
A first version of a protocol library providing RMFP functionality has
been implemented based on the most recent Internet-Draft of RMFP [2].
This library comes with SRM [3] as sole implemented
protocol.
Currently there is work ongoing in developing the next version of RMFP.
This research focusses on the naming problematics that comes with ALF.
Publications
The following papers are the most recent publications, although they are
not up-to-date with the current development.
Software
The implemented RMFP library is planned to be released together with the
technical report as documentation.
Related work
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RMF:
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The Reliable Multicast
Framework is currently developed by the MIST working group.
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SRM:
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The SRM homepage.
The Scalable Reliable Multicast protocol is the only protocol that is currently
integrated in RMFP.
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LGC:
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The
LGC homepage. The Local Group Concept [4] developed
at the University of Karlsruhe,
Germany is a tree-based reliable multicast algorithm. A LGC specification
for the integration into RMFP was developed, but has not yet been implemented.
The specification will be published as part of the technical report.
References
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1
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D. Clark and D. Tennenhouse.
Architectural considerations for a new generation of protocols.
In Proceedings of ACM SIGCOMM '90, pages 201-208. ACM, September
1990.
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2
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J. Crowcroft, L. Vicisano, Z. Wang, A. Ghosh, M. Fuchs, C. Diot and T.
Turletti.
RMFP: A Reliable Multicast Framing Protocol.
Internet Draft:
draft-crowcroft-rmfp-02.txt, March 1998.
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3
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Sally Floyd, Van Jacobson, Steven McCanne, Ching-Gung
Liu, and Lixia Zhang.
A reliable multicast framework for light-weight sessions and application
level framing
IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, December 1997, Vol. 5, No 6,
pp. 784-803.
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4
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Markus Hofmann.
Enabling group communication in global networks.
In Proceedings of Global Networking '97, Calgary, Alberta, Canada,
June 1997.
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5
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Michael Fuchs, Christophe Diot, Thierry Turletti, Markus Hofmann.
A Framework for Reliable Multicast in the
Internet
INRIA Research Report No 3363, February 1998.
Contacts
If you have any questions or comments about RMFP, please contact us at our
mailing list
Michael Fuchs
Last Change: Mar. 13th, 1998 by Thierry Turletti.