IP Multicast Channels: EXPRESS Support for

Large-Scale Single-Source Applications

Computer Science 6390 – Advanced Computer Networks

Holbrook and Cheriton
Dr. Jorge A. Cobb
SIGCOMM’99
IP Any Source Multicast
 IP Multicast (RFC 1112) or ASM – Any Source Multicast
• Hosts aggregated into groups with single address
 ASM Problems
• Strained for very large scale multicast applications such as
Internet TV

• Violates common ISP billing models

• Provides no indication of group size
• No restriction on allowed senders
• World-wide unique multicast address (run out of
addresses)

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EXPRESS
 Focus
Provide explicit support for large-scale multicast applications by
extending the IP Multicast service model to support multicast
channels

 IP Multicast Channels
• A multicast channel is a datagram delivery service identified
by a tuple (S, E) where S is the sender’s source address
and E is a channel destination address.

• Only the source host S may send to (S,E).

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Channel vs. Group Addressing
S S’

(S,E)

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Single-source IP Multicast Addresses
 224 class D addresses allocated
by IANA

 A source S can freely pick any

222.0.0.0 239.255.255.255 of these to make a “channel”
(S,E)

 Sources just send data

addressed to (S,E)

IP Multicast Single-source
addresses multicast
 Receivers have to inform their
Addresses (232.*.*.*) routers they want to join (S,E)
(more on this later)

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Is it a channel or a group?
 Is a multicast packet received addressed to a group
(regular IP multicast) or an IP channel?
• Look at the destination

• If destination ∈ (232.*.*.*) it is for a channel

• Channel = (S,E), S = src IP address, E = dest IP addr
• I.e., the source helps identify the “group”

• If destination ∉ (232.*.*.*) it is for a regular IP group

• Group G = dest IP addr
• I.e. the source does not identify the “group”

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EXPRESS “Counting” Messages
 There are three message types
• CountQuery(chanel,countId,timeout)
• Count(chanel,countId,count,[K(S;E)])
• CountResponse(chanel,countId,status)
 Counts may be initiated by a source or an intermediate router
• Initiator sends a CountQuery to all its children, which
propagates down the tree
• Receiving hosts respond with a Count message
• Router acknowledges (or rejects) the Count message of a
child with a CountResponse
• Once a router receives a Count from all children, it sends a
count to its parent.

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EXPRESS Service Interface Extensions
 Source service interface
• Count = CountQuery(channel, countId, timeout)
• channelKey(channel, K(S, E) )

 Subscriber service interface

• Result = newSubscription(channel [, K(S, E) ]),
• An unsolicited count message is sent towards the source in
order to join the channel
• countID in this case is subscriberID.
• Count(channel, countId, count)
• used by subscriber to reply to CountQuery

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Advantages
 Source
• 224 channels per source
• Address management is simplified
• Authenticated subscription option
• CountQuery mechanism (number of subscribers or
subscriber vote)
 Subscriber
• Receives traffic only from the source it designates
• Ability to provide feedback
 ISP
• Provides basis for charging
• Counting facility increases revenue
• EXPRESS is relatively simple to implement and manage
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EXPRESS Count Management Protocol
 A single common management protocol
 Maintains the distribution tree and supports source-directed counting
and voting
 RPF is used to route subscriptions and unsubscriptions towards the
source
 Generic Counting Operation
• CountQuery (propagates from source to leaves)
• Count (response of child to parent’s CountQuery)
• CountResponse (parent accepts/rejects child’s count message)
• A router can initiate a query without source co-operation
 Distribution Tree Maintenance
• New subscription
• Unsubsciption
• Router can use either TCP or UDP mode for ECMP

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ECMP (Contd.)
 Neighbor/host discovery/refresh
• Periodic CountQuery message
• countId:
• neighbors: all express routers reply
• all-channels: all hosts reply with a count message
 EXPRESS Packet Forwarding
• Forwarding Information Base entries at each router
• Forwarding procedure is nearly identical to IP Multicast
 Authenticated ECMP and End-to-end Encryption
• Authentication provides restricted access while encryption provides
confidentiality
 Advantages
• Simple integrated protocol
• Supports subscription, multicast channel maintenance and counting
• No change in host OS if it supports IP Multicast (?)
• Multicast traffic travel only along paths from source to subscribers

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Multi-source Multicast Applications
 Multiple channels, one per
source
• Applicable when new
source is going to transmit
for extended period of time

 Otherwise, several short-term

sources share a channel (SR,E)
• Data is relayed via a higher Receiver A wants to
level (application) relay
through the channel (SR,E), send a small message
SR = session relay host over the channel
• Relaying is done via
encapsulation from
temporary source to SR.

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EXPRESS Conclusions

 Extension to the conventional IP multicast

 Simple implementation
 Additional capabilities like access control, accounting
and local-to-host multicast address allocation
 Almost single source and truly multi source multicast
applications can be implemented

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