A hybrid multicasting for large-scale data dissemination applications

Large-scale data dissemination applications, which need large numbers of multicast groups to filter information, were often restricted by the poor support of the relevant network routers. So we proposed hybrid multicasting (HM), which could take the advantage of IP multicasting, and was not limited by the network routers at the same time. Compared with other one-to-many data transfer methods, such as duplicate unicasting, broadcasting and IP multicasting, HM could exploit the capabilities and behavior of the underlying communication network and provided better performance. Basing on the application characteristics, we gave some theorems to guide how to select transfer methods, and presented a new data dissemination allocation algorithm, information Flow Merge with the Hybrid Multicasting First (FM/HMF). Tests showed that FM/HMF could produce better outcome and executes faster than nowadays-prevalent IP multicast group allocation strategies.