Multicasting to multiple groups over broadcast channels

The authors examine the multicast problem in a broadcast channel where any transmission can potentially be received by all intended destinations without having to send multiple copies. Specifically, they investigate the (more natural) case in which the source multicasts to a number of different (but not necessarily disjoint) destination groups. The basic problem is that a destination cannot distinguish between a lost message and a message not addressed to it. The approach to the problem that is adopted is to use a single sequence number per source and include additional information in the message stream to indicate to every destination the sequence numbers of the messages destined to it. The resulting protocols are analyzed under two retransmission procedures: the memoryless go-back-N protocol; and the ideal selective reject protocol.<>