Multipoint communication: a survey of protocols, functions, and mechanisms

TLDR

Group communication enables efficient information transfer among participants, especially in distributed and multimedia settings, by avoiding network overload and providing control over data transmission. This paper surveys protocol functions and mechanisms for data transmission within a group, covering multicast routing to end‑to‑end multipoint control. It examines mechanisms ranging from multicast routing to end‑to‑end multipoint transmission control. The survey culminates in a topic‑organized bibliography of relevant protocols and mechanisms.

Abstract

Group communication supports information transfer between a set of participants. It is becoming more and more relevant in distributed environments. For distributed or replicated data, it provides efficient communication without overloading the network. For some types of multimedia applications, it is the only way to control data transmission to group members. This paper surveys protocol functions and mechanisms for data transmission within a group, from multicast routing problems up to end-to-end multipoint transmission control. We provide a bibliography which is organized by topic.