Flexible multicasting in high-capacity switches

Since packet switches with input queueing require low-speed buffers and simple cross-bar fabrics, they potentially provide high switching capacities. In these switches, the port that is a source of a multicast session might easily get congested with the increasing popularity of this session. We propose the protocol for scheduling packets in switches with input buffers for varying popularity of different content on the Internet. Copies of a multicast packet are forwarded through the switch, so that multicasting is evenly distributed over switch ports. The performance trade-off between capacity that can be reserved and guaranteed packet delay is discussed.