Patent ID: 7474631
Filing Date: 2009-01-06
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method for constructing an overlay network for use in on-demand group communication, said method comprising the steps of: formulating an overlay tree with at least one node, wherein the overlay tree is preferably constructed to provide for delivery of at least one packet within a predetermined packet-loss bound and latency bound for a predetermined set of end-system nodes and an expected packet arrival process; selecting a forwarding degree for each end-system node that will forward data in the overlay tree, wherein the forwarding degree is the number of receivers to which the end-system should forward incoming data; selecting a position for each node in the overlay tree, wherein each node is in the position of greedy ordering according to a last-mile bandwidth since delays on the last-mile link dominate an end-to-end performance measure; and determining the forwarding degree such that a desired bound on the end-to-end performance measure is satisfied, wherein thee end-to-end performance measure can be obtained as a function of different network parameters consisting of: arrival rate of data, capacity of overlay links, and buffer sizes.