Using destination set grouping to improve the performance of window-controlled multipoint connections

In conventional multicast communication, the source carries a single conversation with all destination nodes. If a node on the path to any destination becomes congested, the throughput to all destinations is reduced, thus treating some destination nodes unfairly. We consider a window-controlled multipoint connection and study the use of destination set grouping, where the destination set can be split into disjoint subgroups with the source carrying independent conversations with each subgroup. We present a static grouping heuristic that can obtain near optimum grouping for static network environments and a dynamic grouping protocol which can adjust the grouping and the window sizes per group in response to changing network conditions. The performance of the static grouping heuristic and the dynamic grouping protocol are studied using simulation and compared with single-group multicasting.