Scalability in adaptive multi-metric overlays

Increasing application requirements have placed heavy emphasis on building overlay networks to efficiently deliver data to multiple receivers. A key performance challenge is simultaneously achieving adaptivity to changing network conditions and scalability to large numbers of users. In addition, most current algorithms focus on a single performance metric, such as delay or bandwidth, particular to individual application requirements. We introduce a two-fold approach for creating robust, high-performance overlays called adaptive multimetric overlays (AMMO). First, AMMO uses an adaptive, highly-parallel, and metric-independent protocol, TreeMaint, to build and maintain overlay trees. Second, AMMO provides a mechanism for comparing overlay edges along specified application performance goals to guide TreeMaint transformations. We have used AMMO to implement and evaluate a single-metric (bandwidth-optimized) tree similar to Overcast and a two-metric (delay-constrained, cost-optimized) overlay.