Performance Evaluation of Multicast for Small Conferences

Many new Internet applications require data transmission from a sender to multiple receivers. Unfortunately, the IP Multicast technology used today suffers from scalability problems, especially when used for small and sparse groups. Multicast for Small Conferences aims at providing more efficient support for example to audio conferences. In this work, we present a performance study of the concept, based on simulations of real-world scenarios with the ns-2 network simulation software. The results indicate that Multicast for Small Conferences has the potential of replacing IP Multicast for many delay sensitive small group applications, even with very limited support from the network infrastructure.