The Design of a reliable multicast protocol with short delay

Abstract

This paper describes the Short Delay Reliable Multicast (SDRM) protocol, a transport protocol for reliable multicast with short delay. In a multicast environment, when large number of NACKs hits the sender it will incur the feedback implosion problem. Some mechanisms defer the transmission of NACKs, they also defer the receivers to complete their loss recoveries. Without the need of designated representatives and postponing the loss recovery, the SDRM scale well, and is realistic and efficient. It not only reduces the number of NACKs that hit the sender, but also eliminates the delay in emitting the NACKs from the receivers.